Stolen Hope
by Twitcher
Summary: Hope is a powerful emotion and in some corners of the galaxy, hope is a delicacy. Where has the alien from the crash site gone and just what does Ianto and a Jubilee Pizza delivery girl have to do with all this? Jack/Ianto, slight Owen/Tosh
1. Chapter 1

_And so it is that I delve into the realms of Torchwood. This is the first mulitchapter fic I've done for a while and I hope you enjoy._

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><p>Tasha had been so relieved when she'd been given the delivery. It had been a whole week since the last and she'd been almost devastated by the possibility that these few bright spots in her less than glamorous job were gone for good. Because that was exactly what her job was. The life of a Jubilee Pizza delivery girl was just about as unglamorous as you could possibly get.<p>

She didn't let it get her down though. This was just an inbetween phase, she wasn't going to spend the rest of her life shunting pizza around Cardiff. She was going to use the money from this job to pay for art school, hone her talent and who knew, maybe her art would take her places. Her parents would come around eventually and one day she'd look back at this drudgery and laugh.

However, delivering pizza wasn't precisely the most lucrative of jobs. She'd have to start looking for a new line of employment, one with a bigger paycheck fairly soon. Her rent had just gone up and it was getting harder to pay for both her apartment and her art supplies. However, she'd told herself this more than once and just like all the other occasions, she wouldn't go looking through the jobs section of the paper any time soon. There was one bright spot in her life of deliveries, cheap watercolours and budget nights out with Monica and it made everything just that little bit more worthwhile.

Or rather _he _made everything just that little bit more worthwhile.

Yes, she thought as she parked up and carefully took the piping hot boxes from the scooter, her perseverance was a testament to the determination of a woman to find love. The usual flutters of excitement began to spread through her and she tried to stop herself from grinning like an idiot as she walked up to the little door on the darkened docks. The moon hung over the bay, a silvery sliver of light and Tasha hadn't felt this happy since last week. This was the reason she had stuck to the delivery beat.

She knocked on the door before entering, she always did, and there he was.

Ianto Jones. The immaculately neat suits, the patterned ties, that soft voice and those warm, sweet smiles that could melt hearts. He'd been running the tourist information office for what, two or three years now? Long enough to be on first name terms with most of the delivery team of Jubilee Pizza anyway.

He looked up from his desk and gave one of those small smiles that made Tasha's chest flood with a gentle warmth. "Hello Tasha."

"Hey," she said as nonchalantly as possible, closing the cold night out behind her. "Been a while."

Ianto pulled a face. "Went on a hiking trip."

"You don't look too happy about it," Tasha laughed as she handing him the boxes.

"It was awful," he admitted. "It was freezing and there was mud everywhere," he shook his head as if trying to rid himself of the memories.

Tasha smiled. "Well, it's really good to have you back on the delivery roster."

That sounded so stupid. She cringed, but he didn't seem to notice.

He inclined his head. "My pleasure. Anyway, I shouldn't keep you, you're always busy."

This was her cue to leave. She nodded and left, cursing herself for not asking for his number or inviting him out for a drink. It was always the same. She could never quite muster up the courage to make a move. Besides, she reflected somewhat despondently as she clambered back onto the scooter, it wasn't as if he had ever shown any interest. He didn't really fall over himself to talk to her for longer. Maybe he already had a girlfriend...

But as she rode off she banished thoughts like this from her mind. That kind of thinking had never gotten anyone anywhere.

Natasha Parker was a hopeful person.

**XxxXxxX**

Ianto waited a few moments for the delivery girl's footsteps to fade away down the docks before hitting the button that would open the hidden doorway into the Hub. It had just gone past nine and Owen was going to get crabby if he wasn't fed soon. Ianto really didn't like it when Owen got crabby. He hummed quietly to himself as he stepped into the lift and descended into the bowels of Cardiff.

"I need to get a clear reading on this stuff before I can wash it off dammit Tosh!"

"I know Owen, but I've got to start analysing that tech soon or I'll be here all night and I can't do that while it's covered in slime."

"Would you both shut up? I'm trying to read these reports, I want to see Rhys before next week you know."

Tonight, the bowels of Cardiff had a few complaints. Ianto tutted softly and climbed up the stairs to the main workspace unnoticed, the others were too busy bickering to pay him any attention. Gwen was reading the reports on her monitors with an expression of grim determination etched on her face while Tosh sat at her desk rearranging everything on it somewhat agitatedly. If he craned his neck, Ianto could just make out Owen down in the autopsy room buzzing around between his various pieces of equipment like an angry wasp with a medical degree. Ianto grinned slightly at the mental image of Owen with a sting and antenna, then schooled his features and cleared his throat.

They all turned to him with various looks that said 'this had better be good.'

He held out the warm, greasy boxes. "I got us some dinner."

"Oh thank God!" came a relieved groan from Jack's office.

A few minutes later they were sat around the table in the boardroom in silence aside from the standard sounds of eating. Ianto looked around at the group, all pale, all with shadows under their eyes that were so dark that they looked painful. Even Jack looked utterly knackered. But then, it had been a bloody long week.

Tosh had picked up the distress signal sometime last Tuesday. Before she had been able to respond, the signal had just vanished, dropped off the radar. They had assumed the worst, a vanished signal generally meant a crash. Jack ordered them to pack up and get in the SUV. A quick reconnaissance mission, find the crash site, locate any survivors and clean up before the locals got curious. Standard procedure for what had seemed to be fairly straightforward.

They had traced the last point of the signal out to the peak of Pen y Fan in the Brecon Beacons. None of them had been too keen on a trip out there, not after the sheer horror that had been Brynblaidd, but a stern look from Jack had shut them up. Except for Owen who still didn't like the fresh air, smell of grass or anything else. When Jack had parked up the SUV and cheerfully begun unpacking the tents and a few days worth of supplies for while they were dismantling the evidence, Owen had promptly declared a strike. Ianto had pointed out that technically they couldn't do that because they didn't have a union and had gotten sworn at for his trouble. They had roped the area off under the pretence of a small plane crash and started climbing.

Tosh had placed the signal as being somewhere near the memorial that marked the place where the body of Tommy Jones had been found in 1900. They had been heading in the right direction, no problems, chatting amongst themselves and baiting Owen every now and again for a laugh. Then they reached the memorial and Tosh's tracking device cut out and despite it being a clear winter's day, a thick fog sprang up out of nowhere.

Two days later they still hadn't found their way. The fog hadn't lifted, their tech hadn't come back online and they were getting dangerously close to running out of supplies. They had tried walking in every direction to get off the mountain, but always ended up back at the memorial after hours of hiking. Eventually they'd just given up and set camp up around the solemn stone, waiting to be found. The next morning the fog had lifted as suddenly as it had descended and they managed to find the crash site.

The twisted remains of the ship were scattered around a scar in the landscape, the stench of combusted fuel and burnt grass still thick in the air. What was strange though was the gelatinous grey slime that coated some parts of the wreckage and what appeared to be animal bones.

"No survivors," Tosh had said heavily.

Jack was less convinced. "That or they didn't stick around. I don't think that fog was natural, it could have been a distraction while they made their escape."

They had spent the next day or so salvaging what they could from the ship then used a nifty little gadget Ianto had dug out from the archives to disintegrate the rest of the wreck and buried the dust. Owen had taken samples of the slime and picked up the bones for further analysis. They had then climbed back down the mountain and found a few National Trust employees demanding to know just what was going on. A quick dose of retcon all round and then they'd had to spend the next few days scanning the surrounding area and villages for any traces of alien life.

They had found nothing. Finally Jack had agreed that they should just go back to the Hub and analyse what they had and take it from there.

None of them had gone home yet and tempers were beginning to snap.

"Some bloody space junk and some goo. That was our net profit," Owen said moodily as he helped himself to another slice of pizza. "Another week of my life down the toilet, thank you Torchwood."

"It could have been worse," Ianto put in diplomatically.

They all looked at him.

"How exactly?" Gwen asked.

Ianto didn't reply.

"Right well, let's get the last of the analysis done and call it night," Jack said, downing the last of the beer he'd been thoughtfully nursing for the past fifteen minutes.

The others grumbled and filed out, leaving Ianto to finish the clean up, Jack giving him a wink as he went back to his office. Once the others were done figuring out just what they had, he was going to have to label it and sort it into the archives, then no doubt they were going to be monitoring all channels for any mention of unusual activity. Or rather, he would be monitoring all channels while everyone else got some sleep. He took the remaining slices of pizza and put them on a plate, covering them with foil and then chucked the boxes out. He could have those for breakfast.

What next?

Coffee, he decided, watching Gwen stare blankly into space for a good few minutes before coming back to herself with a start. He wiped the table down and then headed for his coffee machine. Double shot tonight, plenty of sugar, but not for Owen. Even if he could use sweetening up. Plenty of milk for Gwen and he'd probably have to crack out the industrial strength for Jack. He was so preoccupied with tailoring each cup to the exact specifications of the person who was going to drink it that he didn't hear Jack sneaking up on him until a pair of arms wrapped around his waist and warm breath ghosted over the side of his neck.

"Taking care of us are we?"

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Someone has to."

"Mommy's looking after the kids," Jack laughed softly and rested his chin on Ianto's shoulder to watch him finish crafting Owen's coffee.

"You'll have me coming to work in an apron next," Ianto said dryly as he began frothing the milk for Gwen's mix.

Jack grinned. "Ooh, I like the way you think."

"Yet another time I should have kept my mouth shut. Anyway, get off, I need to get these to the others before one of them has a meltdown."

"Fine," Jack muttered and reluctantly released his captive. "Hey, where's mine?"

"Patience is a virtue," Ianto told him and picked up the tray of mugs and began distributing them around.

Jack wasn't there when Ianto returned to the machine. Which wasn't a bad thing really. The coffee machine and it's surrounding area was Ianto's territory and anybody in it, even Jack, made him a bit shifty. Besides, Jack tended to get in the way and distract him on purpose, which was more irritating than endearing. He carefully made two cups of the 'industrial strength' coffee, a beverage for only those who could handle the sheer amount of caffeine that was packed into it. What was in it and where Ianto got the ingredients was probably the best kept secret of Torchwood, only he knew and he'd never dropped any hints.

He made a mental note to buy more beans, he was running a little lower than he would have liked and took the tray to Jack's office.

It was a mess in there again. He'd straightened it all out, put the papers into neat, organised stacks and removed the dirty glasses, mugs and discarded chocolate bar wrappers before they'd gone off on their expedition and somehow in the space of less than twenty-four hours, it had been reduced back to being an utter pigsty.

The culprit was sat behind the desk staring thoughtfully at one of the bones they'd recovered from the crash site. Ianto placed the mug on the desk and sat down in the chair opposite, taking a long sip from his own cup. Not bad, if he said so himself. Jack took a mouthful of his own and gulped it down, then he paused and took another mouthful, this time waiting long enough to allow the flavour to spread over his tongue.

"Very good Ianto," he said, awarding him with a wink.

Ianto smiled back and settled back into the chair to finish his drink. They sat in companionable silence, the only noise being the sound of Jack's pen scratching across some report or other and the clunk of his mug being put back down on the desk. One by one, the others called out their goodbyes and made for the exit, determined to get some sleep before they had to begin the search.

Finally Jack looked up. Ianto was watching him through lidded eyes, probably more out of exhaustion than lust, but the effect was the same. He got up from behind the desk and stood behind Ianto, digging his fingers into the other man's shoulders, eliciting a groan of pleasure.

"Have the kids gone to bed yet?" he whispered. "Daddy wants some alone time with Mommy."

Ianto shrugged, dislodging Jack's hands from his shoulders. "If we're some kind of weird family now, does that mean I can make Owen clean all that mud off the SUV for fifty pence and a toffee?"

Jack laughed. "You should try anyway."

"Mm."

"So, you coming?" Jack asked, tugging Ianto over to the ladder that lead to his bunker.

Ianto considered for a moment. "All right. But not too long, I have to sort the new information into the archives and start monitoring the-"

Jack cut him off with a kiss and dragged him down below. He liked the practical nature of Ianto Jones. Just not when he was in the mood for being decidedly impractical.

**XxxXxxX**

Meanwhile, out in the streets of Cardiff, something was drifting down the streets. It twisted and turned, gazing at its strange, exotic surroundings. It had never seen anything like this before and was amazed at what it could see. But not so distracted as to forget why it was here.


	2. Chapter 2

_And so it continues, enjoy_

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><p>The fall had been terrifying. Plummeting, endlessly falling and only being able to stand and watch as the sparse terrain below rushed up to meet them. She had watched as the others made their prayers or tried desperately to regain control of the ship in vain and she had laughed. All the time she had spent planning had been worth it. She had clutched the signal of the blinking circuit and held tightly onto Krael as they made impact.<p>

She had survived. The gamble she had taken on the circuit had paid off. Around her the smouldering wreckage and burning tussocks filled the skies above with stinking grey smoke and for a moment she struggled to remain conscious as the fumes flooded through her. As she fell back into the darkness she scrabbled to find the comforting touch of Krael's mind, but she found nothing. The circuit had only saved her. With this final thought, she blacked out.

When she came to, she had been confused. Where was she? Why was it so cold? Then as she gazed around the carnage around her, the mangled ship and lifeless bodies, it all came back. Her mission, the planning, the special circuit. The crew had been necessary casualties, Krael... Well, there were other mates out there. Now she had to focus. She had activated her cloaking circuit, it wouldn't do to be seen. As an afterthought she hovered over Krael's body. His perception circuit was still intact. She pulled it from his body and clipped it to a jagged strip of metal and the fog instantly sprang up around her. That would prevent any investigations or accidental discoveries, at least for a few days.

It had been no easy matter getting to the city. The crash had damaged her navigation circuits and for a long time she had flitted around the small settlements that dotted the area she had landed in. Perhaps she should have aimed to crash the ship into the city? No. That would have been reckless. Eventually she managed to find her way using the crude transportation service that the humans had cobbled together. A bus indeed... Bus... Strange word.

As she hovered through the streets she was amazed. The noise, the lights, the colours. Earth, for all its simplicity was a vibrant planet. The strange creatures spoke out loud, laughed raucously and sang. They swarmed all around her, dancing and drinking strange substances that seemed to make some of them fall over. It was... Intriguing.

And the emotion. It was everywhere, strong, unbridled and it smelt delicious.

She paused momentarily, tempted. But she steeled herself, blocking all distractions. She had to locate the base as soon as she possibly could, then she could relax.

The water tower stood proud against the night sky, the water glinting in the moonlight as it raced down the sides. She stared at it, her tracking software had led her here? She checked again. Definitely here. She scanned the area. Two entrances nearby, one at the foot of the tower, another a little way off. The complex was further below ground though. How quaint, she thought, amused by the notion.

As she gazed at the tower her attention was caught by a curious buzzing sound. She turned to see a female clamber off one of the simplistic modes of transport she had seen and walk right up to the second entrance and went inside, not challenged at all. She was puzzled. The female hadn't looked to be anything like the five she had identified as having access to the complex. Unless the information she had gathered was incorrect?

The female didn't stay long but when she left the aroma of hope rolled off her. It was divine. She hadn't smelt hope like this for years and she wasn't about to let it pass her by. Besides, the female had access to the base. A prime specimen.

She turned to the tower again briefly before flickering away after the female.

"I know where you are now, Jack Harkness."

**XxxXxxX**

Ianto was beginning to think that Jack might have been wrong. He often had suspicions like this, but usually they turned out to be utterly incorrect and he ended up looking like a right twat. But this time he was positive. There was no alien activity in Cardiff at the present time. The Rift was quiet, a few spikes here and there but no noticeable occurrences. The Weevils were down in the sewers doing... Whatever it was that they did, weeviling around?

It didn't matter. All he knew was that he'd been staring slightly slack-jawed at his computer for the past five hours, waiting for something to happen. Nothing had. That crash had been an all round fatality. If there had been any survivors, they had pissed off. It had been a week since the crash and nothing had happened. It was pretty safe to say that they were in the clear.

He got to his feet, grimacing as his spine cracked noisily in the eerie quiet of the Hub. He needed a shower. His suit was a crumpled mess and he smelt like an odd combination of sweat, sex, and strawberry whipped cream. Jack had produced a can of the sickly sweet stuff from his desk drawer and to be fair, it had been a lot of fun. But now he was finding the lingering scent somewhat unpleasant and he hoped that one of the others would be back soon so he could slip off to the showers and freshen up. He was pretty sure he still had a spare suit in the back room of the dummy office upstairs.

Jack had left a few hours previously, probably gone off to stand on top of a tall building and look broody. Ianto had followed him once and had been almost disappointed. He had been expecting to find Jack wrestling a Weevil or playing cards with Jabba the Hutt or something. But no, all he did was stare at the city for who knew how long. Ianto had gotten bored and left after an hour.

It was almost seven. Gwen would probably be in soon then. He swiped the remaining slices of pizza out of the fridge and sat down on the couch to eat them. And people thought secret organisations were swanky affairs with lots of gadgets, sexy people and intrigue. All he got was cold pizza, alien goo and he hadn't checked a mirror yet, but he was pretty sure he was looking about as far away from sexy as it was humanly possible to be.

The noise of the door rolling back pulled him from his musings and sure enough, Gwen was marching in looking significantly more refreshed than she had the night before. He waved at her as she dumped her bag on her chair.

"Morning."

She frowned. "You've never been here all night have you?"

He nodded. "Yup. Kept an eye out for any reports of a shell shocked alien covered in goo. Nothing. I think we can call this case closed once Owen figures out what they were."

She looked him over with a critical eye. "Have you at least had breakfast?"

He held up the remaining crust of the pizza. "Leftovers," he said cheerfully and popped it in his mouth.

"That is disgusting," she laughed, coming over to sit next to him.

"Says you. You haven't lived until you've started your day on cold pizza."

"Whatever. God what do you smell like? Is that..."

"Strawberries. Yes. Don't ask, I get the feeling you won't want the details."

Gwen raised her eyebrows. "Fair enough. Anyone else in?"

"Nope. But seeing as you're here, I might nip off and clean up. I don't think smelling like an expired strawberry mousse is all that attractive to be honest," Ianto said and got up, heading for the showers.

"It really isn't" Gwen agreed.

She watched him leave and shook her head. Did he ever go home? She didn't think she could handle being here as much as he was, the past week had almost driven her insane. It had been good to come home and see Rhys at last, cuddle up in bed and wake up in his arms. He had even gotten up at six in the morning on his day off to make her a cup of tea before she had left for work. Not for the first time she had thanked whatever powers that were out there for her fiancé.

The monitors were all quiet, no alerts, no new reports. It was looking to be an easy day and a welcome one at that. She wandered over to Tosh's desk and picked up one of the pieces of alien technology they had taken from the wreck. It was a sweet little piece of tech, if a circuit was capable of being cute, delicate but somehow sturdy. Perhaps the materials it was made from gave it its strength because it looked as though it would snap if even merely touched. She put it back down and sat at her own desk, pulling out the pastry she had bought herself for breakfast.

The door rolled back and she looked up to see Jack swaggering in, slightly damp from the rain outside but whistling merrily to the world in general. He waggled his eyebrows at her in way of greeting and vanished into his office. She took another bite of her croissant and flicked through the half-finished reports Owen and Tosh had been compiling.

"Long story short, it's goo and smells a bit funny. Very scientific Owen," she scoffed.

Jack stuck his head around the door of his office. "Is Ianto still here?"

"Showers," she called back.

"Never mind then," he said and disappeared again.

Fifteen minutes later he came back out and leaned over her shoulder, reading over what Tosh had garnered from the few pieces of tech that weren't covered in goo.

"Do you have to do that?"

"Sorry," he said absently. "Anyway, could I get you to check that nobody else stumbled on that wreck while we were lost? I mean we blocked it off and everything, but just in case. Should have done it sooner really but you know how it's been."

"Sure. I'll keep an eye out in case anything pops up."

He grinned at her. "Great, thank you."

It was at this moment that a damp Ianto Jones turned up, looking at least a little better for a wash and a change of clothes. Gwen pretended not to notice the slightly smug look that spread across Jack's face as he approached.

"Ianto Jones, you're a cruel man," he said in a mock hurt voice.

Ianto looked confused. "What did I do?"

"You disabled the CCTV in the showers."

Gwen had to commend Ianto for managing to ignore Jack, though she could see that it had taken a considerable amount of effort. He turned to her and gave her a somewhat strained smile. "Would you like a coffee?"

"Ooh, that'd be lovely thanks."

As he walked off she turned her best disapproving cop frown on Jack. "You wouldn't have really."

He looked at her with wide, innocent blue eyes. "Never."

She didn't believe him at all. The wolfish grin that he probably thought she hadn't seen before she turned around again had given him away.

There were no reports of a crashed plane, flying saucer or otherwise on record, it seemed that Pen y Fan had remained quiet. They had cordoned the area off, but it was good to be sure. It all seemed innocuous until she came across a weather report. She stared at it. Then she pulled up another window and cross referenced.

Oh dear.

While she was frantically searching for an explanation, Tosh and Owen arrived, Tosh looking bright and cheery, Owen less so. He muttered a greeting and shuffled down into the autopsy room, shrugging on his lab coat and shouting for Ianto to get a move on with more caffeine. Tosh beamed at Gwen as she sat down and took up the circuits with renewed enthusiasm, slipping her glasses onto her nose.

"I bumped into Owen outside," she chirped as she held the wafer-thin tech up to the light. "Convinced him to come to a bakery for some breakfast, it was nice."

When Gwen didn't respond she looked up at the other woman. Normally Gwen was more than happy for a little girl-talk but when she saw the look on the colleague's face, her exuberance dulled a little.

"What's wrong?"

Gwen leaned back in her seat. "I think Jack needs to see this."

"What?" Tosh got up and skimmed over what was up on Gwen's monitors. "Oh..."

"There wasn't a fog up on Pen y Fan at all last week. It's like it never happened."

"So it wasn't real?"

Gwen didn't have a clue.

**XxxXxxX**

Meanwhile in a grungy flat in Splott, Tasha woke up fresh from a night on the lash. Fresh not really meaning energised or having minty connotations. She felt like someone had hit her on the head a few times with a mallet and then sucked all of the saliva out of her mouth and left a chunk of mouldy cheese in there for a laugh. It was disgusting, bordering on foul. She and Monica had met up after her shift had finished for a few drinks. Then a few more.

"Bleeding hell," a sleepy voice moaned beside her. Apparently she and Monica had crashed out in her bed together.

"God I know," Tash replied, getting up. She was still wearing the clothes she had gone out in, plus a few stains here and there that she wasn't going to think too hard about.

Monica sat upright, her mop of tangled black curls obscuring her face. "What time is it?"

"Dunno," she checked the alarm clock. "About ten past eleven."

They stumbled around the tiny flat, reacting to any noise as if it had been a large explosion and squinting in pain when Tasha had optimistically flung the curtains open. They had hot tea and toast made from bread that hadn't quite gone stale yet and then Monica had tottered off to her boyfriend's place, leaving Tasha to her own company.

She went into the bathroom and stared glumly at herself in the mirror. She looked terrible. A shower would help with that, a little concealer for the shadows... She was salvageable. The hot water cascaded over her and she felt a little better. She hopped out, wrapped in a towel and picked out a pair of clean jeans and a plain t-shirt and jumper. After she had applied a little make-up and dried her hair she looked pretty good, not as fragile as she felt.

Besides, it was entirely possible that she'd get to see Ianto again today. Or at least tomorrow.

With that thought in her mind, she set off out with a spring in her step, intending to catch the bus into the city centre. She wanted to pick up a new sketchbook and some more graphite pencils, her others had gotten lost down the side of the couch.

She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn't see the strange figure waiting for her in the foyer of the building until she was almost face to face with it. Or maybe it had just appeared out of nowhere. Either way it was decidedly not human. She stared at it in horror and was just inhaling to let out a fairly decent scream when it reached out with one graceful limb.

"Don't fear me child," it said softly. But not out loud, it was more as though it had spoken directly into her head. "My name is Shaal. I want to help."


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter three, enjoy._

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><p>Tasha stared, the scream that had been rising got stuck in her throat and the only sounds she could make were slightly strangled splutters. She backed away, pressing up against the faded wallpaper as the creature moved closer towards her, that long arm still outstretched towards her. Any moment it was going to be close enough to touch her and then... What was it going to do?<p>

_"I won't harm you,"_ the musical voice said gently. _"All I want to do is help you."_

"What are you?" Tasha whispered, drawing even further away.

_"A friend."_

As this was said, a curious scent filled the air. It was heady and sweet, almost floral in a way and Tasha found herself relaxing. She gazed at the strange figure before her with curiosity rather than alarm, her panic had faded away and been replaced with a warm, fuzzy feeling and she felt like her head had been stuffed full of cotton wool.

It was tall and slender with long graceful arms tapering down to long delicate fingers. It didn't seem to have hands. It didn't have skin, instead its skeleton was clearly visible through translucent silvery grey flesh. She could see what looked like electrical circuits embedded into its body, blinking with tiny lights. Its skull was delicate with large eye sockets and rather than having eyeballs, it had catlike orbs of glowing green light. Other than that it was featureless, no face or anything.

It took her hand with its outstretched arm. The strange flesh that encased its long finger bones was cold to the touch. It felt like... Jelly. It felt like that jelly you made up out of a packet with hot water but firmer, alive.

"What are you?" She breathed as the delicate fingers entwined with her own.

_"I told you before. I am Shaal,"_ the voice said, those big eyes locking with hers. _"I want to be your friend."_

Tasha stared back wide eyed. Without really being to aware of what she was doing, she squeezed the fingers and gave Shaal a sweet, innocent smile. "Okay."

**XxxXxxX**

Meanwhile below Cardiff, Gwen was trying to explain the apparent phantom fog they had all experienced. The rest of the team were sat around the table with various expressions of puzzlement and disbelief. Jack was gazing at the screen which currently showed the weather reports from last week in the way you'd frown at a particularly difficult sudoku puzzle. Gwen rocked awkwardly on the balls of her feet, waiting for someone to say something.

Owen obliged her. "So we all hallucinated fog then? Ianto, you been slipping stuff in the coffee?"

Ianto shot him an irritated look but said nothing.

"It was a diversion then," Jack said absently, his eyes flicking over the screen rapidly, reading and rereading.

"What for?" Tosh asked.

Nobody replied. There didn't seem to be any reason. They had picked up nothing all week, if there was some form of insidious alien plot going on, the invaders were sure taking their sweet time about it. Jack didn't like it. If it was taking this long to come to the surface then it meant that whatever was being planned was big and needed some serious preparation time. They had to figure out just what was going on before it was too late.

"Tosh, any luck with the circuits?" he asked.

Her eyes lit up. "They're beautifully made, a real triumph of engineering-"

"Woah calm down," Owen jeered.

"Uh, well," Tosh stumbled, flushing slightly. "They don't seem to be badly damaged, even the ones covered in that goo but I have no idea what might have powered them or what they were used for."

Jack nodded. "Keep working on it. Owen, that... Gunk."

Owen shrugged. "It's organic as far as I can tell, maybe a fuel source?"

"And the bones?"

"Alien. Never come across anything like them before. It was a pain digging them out of that goop though."

"Species?"

Owen looked at him like he was insane. "How am I supposed to know?"

"I can look it up in the records, see if we've come across anything like them before," Ianto put in quickly.

"Okay," Jack said, standing up and leaning on the table. "Tosh, Owen, keep up with tests, see if you can find anything else out about them. Gwen, could I get you talk to the staff at the National Trust? They might have seen the fog, maybe track down anyone who was in the area. Ianto, check the records. Let's move people!"

As the others left, Jack sat back down and stared at the screen. He was missing something here. Or was it that something was familiar? He just couldn't place it. But it was good to know he'd been right about the fog being unnatural, even if it presented them with a whole new set of problems. A perception filter of some kind? Maybe some kind of psychic suggestion or weather machine? Whatever had caused it had to be advanced. That fog had been so real, he had been able to feel the chill of it on his skin and he had seen droplets on his clothing.

He gradually became aware that he wasn't alone. Turning around he saw that Ianto hadn't left yet and was hovering uncertainly by the door. When Jack met his eyes he flushed and looked away. On closer inspection, Ianto didn't look his best. The extra night on the job had taken it out of him and the dark purple shadows under his eyes seemed to drain the rest of the colour out of his face. Jack knew he wouldn't complain either. He'd just keep going until the case was wrapped up or he'd collapsed from exhaustion. Most bosses would call that dedication. Jack called it being stubborn.

"Ianto, when did you last sleep?"

"Oh uh, might have been on the drive back here, had a quick kip in the SUV," Ianto said, sitting down next to him.

Jack reached out and laid a hand on his cheek, gentle tracing the dark circle below his left eye with his thumb. Ianto sighed and leaned into his touch, eyes fluttering closed. "You need a day off."

Ianto's eyes flew open and to Jack's amusement he looked almost outraged. "No I don't. I'm fine. Besides, you'd all start drinking instant coffee while I was out and it's a downhill spiral from there."

Jack chuckled and shook his head. There it was. The joke to steer conversation away from himself. If people thought he was a closed book, they had obviously never tried to have a conversation with Ianto Jones about his personal life or state of well-being. He wasn't sure if it was just because Ianto honestly didn't think that talking about himself was important or if he was protecting himself from something. Sometimes he wondered just what Ianto was so scared of. Sometimes... He thought it was him.

He often had to remind himself that it shouldn't bother him. They were just fooling around right? It didn't have to mean anything. But that didn't stop him from feeling hurt that Ianto held back on him. It didn't stop him being insanely jealous of Lisa, who had seen the sides of Ianto that were now locked away. Hell, he took the stubborn Welshman out on dates, you didn't do that unless...

Shit.

"So you wanted something?" he asked quickly, trying to stop his rapidly derailing train of thought. "Or were you just enjoying the view?"

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Seen it all already. No, I just wondered if you were okay, you looked a little out of it in the meeting. It's no good telling me to sleep if you're off all hours of the night."

"Worrying are we?" Jack teased. "I'm fine. Just..."

"Just?"

"Something seems familiar is all."

"Right, well if you have any epiphanies, let us know," Ianto said, brushing some dust that probably wasn't actually there off his suit as he stood up to leave.

Downstairs, the others were all deeply absorbed in their respective tasks. Tosh was running each separate circuit and chunk of spaceship hardware through a set of scanners and then reading through every result like it was some kind of gripping novel. Gwen was sat at her desk, writing emails and making polite telephone calls. Ianto smiled, she always started every call the same way. 'Hello, I was wondering if you could help me'. Owen however was sat glumly down in the autopsy room, staring blankly at a lump of the weird organic matter. Despite every survival instinct telling him not to, Ianto leaned on the railings to get a closer view.

"How's it going?"

Owen visibly bristled. Ianto had often wondered why he never seemed to mind having Tosh or Gwen in the area, maybe his and Jack's lack of breasts somehow offended the doctor. Or maybe it was some strange macho territory thing?

"No, now that you mention it Tea Boy, it's not going well at all."

"I don't do tea. It's coffee."

Owen fixed him with a scathing look. "Who cares mate. Go do whatever it is you do. File, blow the boss, make the coffee."

Ianto decided not to retort. Owen had never really gotten over the whole shooting him in the shoulder thing. To be fair, it wasn't something you tended to forget. But he didn't have to be such an arse about it, it had been for a pretty good reason. Besides, Jack would get really pissed if they had another fight and Ianto was never sure if he was kidding about actually giving them a spanking. Instead he turned neatly on his heel and walked out, biting his tongue to keep the comments to himself and headed for the archives.

It was definitely looking to be a long day.

**XxxXxxX**

Later that evening Tasha arrived at Jubilee Pizza. It had been a strange day to be sure, Shaal had followed her, somehow turning herself invisible. She had taught Tasha how to speak to her using her mind and had asked questions all day. Why did people all wear such curious garments? What was that funny hairy creature on a leash? Did they all eat such strange things? What in the world were those two people doing? It had been distracting, trying to buy her new sketchbook and pencils with the almost constant talking running through her mind.

"Evening Tasha," Ben said from behind the counter. "Got a few orders for you already. Looks like a busy night."

"It's always a busy night," Tasha said with a laugh. "Give us the addresses then."

She scanned down the print out Ben handed over and with a thrill of excitement she saw the name Jones, Ianto halfway down the list. She was going to get to see him two nights in a row! It was definitely her week. Even if she was being followed by an alien. Because that was what Shaal had told her. She was from another planet but her ship had crashed and she had been lonely. Tasha could understand that, being isolated from your family in a strange place and felt almost privileged that Shaal had chosen her to be her friend.

"_You're happy?" _the beautiful voice asked as she whizzed through the first few deliveries.

"_Yeah." _Tasha replied. "That'll be ten quid thanks."

"_Is it the male? The one you told me about?"_

Tasha grinned. _"Yes! I saw him yesterday too, it's... Sorry, it's a bit sad isn't it? Being this excited."_

"_Not at all. Do you hope he'll fall in love with you?"_

"_I suppose I do. I mean, I'd like to go out for a drink with him, maybe hang out a bit first you know?" _Tasha told her shyly as she parked up the scooter and began to head down the docks to the Tourist Information Centre.

"_Courtship is different where I come from."_

Tasha knocked three times and entered. "Hello Ianto," she said cheerily. Then she took a closer look at him. "God, you look knackered."

He did too. He was frightfully pale and those shadows under his eyes. His shoulders were slumped and he had been staring at the screen of his computer with glazed eyes when she had come in. The sleepy, confused look on his face when she had come in made her want to wrap him up in a blanket and put him to bed.

He smiled ruefully at her. "Party at my friend's place. Didn't get any sleep at all."

"No kidding."

He shrugged and took the boxes from her. "How have you been then?"

She stared for a moment. He wanted to know? She scrabbled for something to say that wouldn't make her look like a complete moron.

"Me? Oh, you know. Delivering pizza." That made her sound like she didn't have a life. "Uh, and I went out last night myself actually, drinks with a friend."

That had sounded a bit rushed...

He didn't seem to notice and handed her the payment for the pizza, in exact change as always. "Sounds nice. Thank you anyway, you'll probably be needing to be off."

"Yes, busy as always," she laughed. "See you."

"Bye."

When she got outside she couldn't stop the silly grin that burst across her face. He had wanted to know how she was! That was a good sign right? It was pathetic to be so happy just because of that, but it showed promise. There was hope. As she stood there for a moment, Shaal suddenly came up behind her, no longer invisible in the darkness of the night and wrapped both of her long arms around her.

"_It makes me glad to see you so happy child."_

Tasha smiled and hugged her strange new friend back. As she walked back to the scooter she couldn't help but notice that she felt slightly drained, as if something had been drawn out of her. She shook her head a bit before she jammed her helmet back on. She was probably just a little tired, it had been a late night and an unusual day after all.

She hadn't noticed that Shaal had invisibly slipped into the Tourist Information Office with her, nor had she been able to see the odd, dark liquid that Shaal had sprayed near Ianto.

Ianto hadn't noticed either.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a few hours before Ianto started to feel that perhaps he should have gone home and slept. Or maybe he just needed another shot of caffeine. He looked up from the print out Tosh had given him to read over and winced as the various lights around the Hub assaulted his eyes. He shouldn't have sat in the darkest corner of the damn place. He got up and swayed perilously for a moment before managing to find his balance. Huh. His legs must have been going dead.

He waited patiently for the world to stop spinning and for his legs to start listening to him again and crossed the workspace to return the report to Tosh. Her hair was messily bound back off her face and her usually neat appearance was ruffled and slightly askew. Her jacket had been discarded and the pale pink tank top she wore beneath it was sliding off one shoulder. Her carefully applied make-up was smudged below her eyes and she had worn away the lipstick hours ago from repeatedly pursing her lips in concentration. This was a Tosh who was determined to get to the bottom of something.

"Got anything else yet?" he asked, frowning at how raspy his voice sounded. His throat was ridiculously dry. He tried swallowing a few times but it didn't seem to have any effect.

"Sorry Ianto," Tosh said apologetically. "I can figure out what the uses are in some cases but I can't figure out just what was powering them. They don't respond to electricity or heat or any other form of energy I've exposed them to."

Ianto laid a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. I can still sort them, we'll just have to live with not knowing how they're powered."

"But some of the things they can do!" Tosh turned away from the computer screen at last, her eyes aglow with enthusiasm. "This one here, it's a highly complex cloaking device."

"Like the... The uh," Ianto motioned in the direction of the invisible lift. "Lift, that's it."

Tosh looked at him strangely. "Yes... But we're talking more than just a perception filter here, think more like a fully functioning chameleon circuit."

"I see."

He didn't.

He was vaguely aware of Tosh talking emphatically with lots of hand gestures but the words were fading in and out of his hearing and he ended up just nodding politely whenever she paused. He wondered if Jack wouldn't mind if he just slipped down into his bunker and had a quick nap on his bed. Owen hadn't been kidding when he'd given them that importance of sleep lecture a few weeks back, he felt terrible.

"Ianto?"

Whoops, he'd forgotten to nod.

"Sorry, I was just thinking," he trailed off and walked away, muttering to himself.

Tosh shrugged. He was probably a bit tired. God knew she was, these circuits were driving her bonkers. She had only figured out what two of them actually did. The chameleon circuit and an electromagnetic field generator in miniature. But just what the heck did they run off? She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, messing it up even more. She liked challenges, revelled in them and the feeling of making a breakthrough was pretty much orgasmic, but this was just getting silly. It was almost midnight and she wasn't about to spend all night down here. She wanted to get home and climb into bed.

She began to pack her things up. She'd had enough for tonight.

Down in the autopsy room, Owen had come to the same conclusion. Screw it and deal with it in the morning when he didn't feel like his eyeballs were going to fall out of his head if he stared at the goo and bones for another moment longer. Only in bloody Torchwood would he spend over twelve hours prodding the same lumps of gelatinous mass and come up with nothing. It was like the stuff was incomplete, something was missing from it, like that final piece in a jigsaw puzzle that had gotten lost under the sofa.

He threw off his lab coat and stalked up the stairs, determined to get the hell out of there before he came up with another test to do on the stuff.

And there was Toshiko, ruffled and half-dressed, looking utterly doable.

… He really must be tired. He'd be down the the vaults making out with Janet next.

"Going home as well?" she asked as she pulled her coat back on.

He swallowed. "Yeah, yeah... Had enough for tonight."

"It's been a long day," she said, hoisting her bag onto her shoulder. "Do you want to split a cab fare?"

"Why not," he said overtly casually and followed her out the door.

Gwen watched them leave with a small smile. One day Owen might just deflate his ego enough to see what was right in front of his face. That or she was going to have to puncture it herself, it was both adorable and frustrating as hell watching those two. But if they were going, she might as well call it a night herself, there wasn't must point in calling around any more and she'd promised Rhys that she would come home tonight. He'd missed her over the last week and she was quite enjoying the attention she was getting from him.

As she was about to leave, she spotted Ianto standing at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the boardroom with a look of utter confusion on his face.

"Okay there Ianto?"

He turned around to face her and blinked a few times as if he'd just woken up. "Oh yes... Fine. Just forgot..."

Gwen moved closer to get a better look at him. He was slightly flushed and his voice was raspy and slurred. He had removed his suit jacket and rolled his sleeves up around his elbows but still looked uncomfortably warm. He stared at her with unfocused, dilated eyes and then suddenly took a step back, horror written across his face.

"Lisa?"

What on Earth? She held up her hands, moving closer still. "No, it's me, Gwen."

He stared at her, the panic fading from his eyes and he let out a sigh of relief. "Yes, you are. Sorry about that..." he shuffled awkwardly.

"Are you sure you're all right?" she asked cautiously, reaching out to place a comforting hand on his arm.

He licked his lips and nodded. "Overtired. I'll go home and get some sleep."

"I think you should," Gwen said, going back to her workstation and picking up her bag. "Do you want a lift home? You shouldn't drive if you're in that much of a state."

"I'll take a taxi," Ianto said with a tired smile.

Gwen wrapped her arm around his waist and gave him a quick squeeze. "Okay. You take care of yourself and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye," he said and wandered up the stairs.

She watched him until he vanished into the boardroom. On her way out she stuck her head around Jack's office door. Jack was turning one of the circuits around in his hands, examining it from all angles.

"Jack."

He looked up and grinned. "Gwen."

"Could you make sure Ianto goes home tonight? He's exhausted."

"Well yeah, we all are," Jack said dismissively, going back to the circuit.

She often had to remind herself that Jack's immortality prevented him from dying of exhaustion or feeling the effects of crippling sleep-deprivation. It wasn't really his fault that he'd lost touch with some of his humanity but it really got on her nerves sometimes and she did have to stop and think about it from his angle. Even if that was all but impossible.

"He just mistook me for Lisa."

That got his attention. His head snapped up at once and he gave her a questioning look. "He what?"

"Look, he's in a right state, just make sure he gets home safely okay? I've got to go, Rhys is still waiting up and I want to get back before daylight."

He nodded, his thoughts clearly elsewhere. In fact he didn't even notice her leave.

Ianto was still stuck on Lisa then. He clenched his fists without realising that he was doing so until his palms began to smart from his fingernails digging into his flesh. That was why he was still closed off. He was still hung up on her. What did that make him then? Some kind of stress relief? A bad habit? He growled and flung the circuit onto the table. Luckily it bounced.

And since when did he care? He was Jack God damn Harkness, he could have anyone, everyone if he so wanted. So why was he spending all his time being jealous of a cybernetic dead woman? Why did it almost hurt that Ianto wouldn't open up to him? Maybe Ianto was still angry with him for leaving without a goodbye or explanation or maybe he was going soft in his old age. It didn't matter, he was still frustrated and confused, two things he didn't like very much at all.

A soft noise from the doorway broke his venomous thoughts and he looked up to see the source of his inner turmoil standing there, eyes shining in the gloom. Damn did he ever look like something right out of some kind of erotic magazine. His hair was a mess and his face was flushed, teeth worrying at his lower lip. His jacket was gone, his tie hanging limply from one hand and it looked like he'd popped the first few buttons on his shirt off in his haste to undo them. The dim light from Jack's desktop lamp played across him, leaving some angles in shadow, illuminating others.

It was the raw, burning need in his eyes that sent shudders down Jack's spine. He got up and crossed the room. If he was just a bad habit to Ianto as he suspected, then Ianto was his full blown addiction. There was no way he could ignore him like this.

Any restraint Ianto had been showing didn't crumble so much as was utterly demolished the second that Jack's fingers brushed his arm. He grabbed Jack and crushed their bodies together in a fevered kiss that left Jack reeling from the intensity. He found himself being pushed backwards until the back of his legs hit his desk. He shifted so that he was sitting up on it, parting his legs so that Ianto could stand between them. Ianto moaned and broke the kiss to nip at the sensitive skin of Jack's neck and swipe his tongue along his collarbones.

He could feel Ianto's heart hammering in his chest and... That was not a healthy rate. Ianto's mouth was utterly dry, his tongue like sandpaper and the kisses were fevered because Ianto was literally burning up. He wrenched himself away and held the younger man at an arms length and stared at him carefully. Ianto whined and tried to re-establish the close contact but Jack didn't give. He started down at him and noted the rapid breathing, the faraway look in eyes that were so dilated that only a thin ring of blue showed around the pupils.

"What the hell wrong with you?"

Ianto looked stricken for a moment and then collapsed into Jack's chest, his hands desperately fumbling at the remaining buttons on his shirt. "It's too hot," he groaned.

Jack slid off the desk and pulled Ianto's hands away, quickly and carefully helping him to remove the offending garment. Ianto sighed in relief when it was pulled away and slumped into Jack's arms, making him stagger with the sudden weight.

"Gwen wasn't kidding when she said you were in a state huh?" he said, rubbing slow circles on Ianto's back.

Ianto said something but it was muffled by Jack's shirt.

"Come on then, let's get you into bed," Jack said, gently adjusting Ianto so that he was standing under his own power and leading him to the entrance to his bunker. "You can stay with me tonight, okay?"

"Mmph."

Jack decided to take that as accepting the invitation and with a good deal of difficulty, managed to get Ianto down the ladder without either of them falling off. Once they were down there he stripped the rest of Ianto's clothing off and put him in the bed. When he moved away to pull off his own clothes, Ianto made a slightly hysterical cry and he had to move back, squeezing his hand firmly to reassure him.

"It's okay. You want something to drink?"

Ianto nodded.

"I'll be back soon then," Jack said gently and got up, climbing out of the bunker to fill a glass from the tap.

Jack had thought that Ianto would drink the water and then fall straight to sleep, as would make sense. Instead he found himself having to go and get more and more water until eventually he emptied out a two litre bottle of coke from the fridge and filled it up to save him so many repeat journeys. In between gulping down water like he'd been lost in a desert and the resulting trips to the bathroom, Ianto didn't sleep at all. He tossed and turned, crying out occasionally, even lashing out in blind terror at Jack at one point.

Eventually Jack realised that he couldn't cope with this on his own. Whatever was wrong with Ianto went way past needing a little sleep. He grabbed his phone and scrolled through his contacts.

"Owen? Sorry to wake you-"

"Jack. It's three in the morning. This had better be fucking good."

"It's Ianto. I think..."

"Yeah what?"

"I think he's been poisoned."


	5. Chapter 5

_Let it be said that I'm in no way trained for any kind of medical situation. Therefore, I have no idea if everything in this chapter is accurate but from what I gathered with doing research this is if not correct, at least pretty damn close._

* * *

><p>Owen's mind was racing as he clattered down the stairs into the Hub. He'd crashed out across his bed still fully clothed the moment he'd gotten home, meaning to just rest his eyes for a few minutes before he changed and showered but had fallen deeply asleep within seconds of his head hitting the pillows. Then just as he was having the weirdest dream he'd had since he was seventeen, Jack had called and started shouting that Ianto was quite probably dying and would he get his sorry arse over here and do his job.<p>

So much for a good night's sleep.

Despite being his usually charmingly cynical self about the current situation, Owen was in fact worried. If Ianto had been poisoned as Jack seemed to think he had been, how had the poison been administered? If it had been in something he ate then that was a problem, they had all eaten the same pizza. What if Gwen or Tosh were in the same state right at this moment? And why hadn't he or Jack been affected by it? He shook his head and tried to marshal his thoughts. See to the patient, then try and find the source.

"Right, where is he?" he called as he marched through the door.

"Down here!" Jack's voice came from the autopsy room.

Ianto had been laid out on the gurney in the centre of the room. His eyes were wide and terrified, his chest rising and falling rapidly. From what Owen could see, Ianto clearly had no idea where he was or who was with him and Jack seemed to be having to hold him down to prevent him from bolting. Owen pressed his lips together and assessed the situation. The patient was panicking, he had to be calmed down before any further action was taken. He hurried down the stairs and grabbed his lab coat as he approached the gurney, shrugging it on over his t-shirt.

"Okay Ianto mate," he said firmly. "It's okay, it's me, Owen and Jack's here too, you're safe. It's all going to be fine."

This had no effect. Ianto stared at him with no recognition and cried out, trying to squirm out of reach. Owen briefly wondered why all medical handbooks insisted you say rubbish like this, it never seemed to work. It was one of the reasons he'd never really liked dealing with patients. He seized Ianto's arm and pressed his fingers to his wrist to check his pulse. It was fast, much too fast.

"When did this start?" he asked Jack.

"A few hours ago, I thought he was just exhausted or feverish," Jack said, still trying to restrain Ianto.

"Right, I don't think sweet nothings are going to do much for him right now," Owen said, "he's delirious. I need a blood sample off him before I can do anything else."

Jack grappled with Ianto for a moment and then gave Owen an incredulous look. "Good luck."

Owen didn't reply. He was frantically searching through the medical supplies at his disposal, finally he found what he was looking for. He grabbed the vial, diluted its contents and loaded it into a hypodermic.

"Okay Jack, hold him steady."

Jack eyed the needle warily then nodded, all but lying on top of Ianto to keep him still. Owen took a moment to hope that he was using the right stuff and then slowly moved closer to the gurney. Ianto didn't notice the needle, being too occupied with trying to push Jack off him which allowed Owen a few precious moments to grab his arm and quickly slide the needle under his skin into the median cubital vein. When he felt the needle Ianto screamed and for a horrible moment Owen thought that he hadn't diluted the solution enough, but when no further cries came he relaxed, it had been fear rather than pain.

"Right, just give that a few minutes to act, won't be long."

They both stepped back from the gurney and as they watched, Ianto's movements became less frenzied and soon his eyes slid closed. Jack realised he'd been holding his breath and let out a long sigh. He turned to Owen who grinned and held up the syringe.

"Diazepam. That should keep him under while I find out just what's wrong."

Jack frowned. "What do you mean find out? It's got to be poison, there's nothing else it could be."

Owen shook his head. "How would anyone manage to poison him then? We've all been shut up in here eating and drinking the same stuff. Look, you phone Tosh and Gwen and make sure they aren't showing any of the same symptoms and I'll take some bloods of him."

Before Jack could make any further protests, Owen had firmly pushed him towards the stairs and began rummaging around for the equipment he needed. Jack may command the team but Owen was very much in his element when it came to all things medical and Jack was only going to get in his way if he hung around any longer.

"But-"

"You know how you get really annoyed when Gwen starts telling you how to drive?" Owen said as he produced some vacuum tubes seemingly from thin air.

"Yeah..."

Owen looked up at him and grinned. "Don't tell me how to do my job."

Jack rolled his eyes and stomped off to make some phone calls.

**XxxXxxX**

As Owen took the first blood sample from Ianto, Shaal drifted across Roald Dahl Plass towards the Tourist Information Centre. By now the man who had been guarding the door should be sufficiently incapacitated for her to be able to slip past him without anyone noticing. She reflected with some irritation that if she weren't so weakened from the crash she could have stormed the place by now. It had used up most of her energy reserves to take out that male, Ianto or whatever his name was and she couldn't drain too much from Tasha at once or she would notice.

All she could do tonight was look around and then get out. Even if Harkness was there, she wouldn't be able to do anything. Her scanning software had gone offline shortly after she had used it the night that she had first come to this city and found Tasha and if she was going to get to her target when she was recovered, she had to know the layout of his headquarters. He was going to be on his own territory and she had to be prepared.

The door was locked but surprisingly enough, it was a simple lock, hardly the kind of mechanism she had expected. Harkness was involved with Torchwood wasn't he? Then why did he have the most average of security? However, under closer examination she saw that the lock wasn't quite as primitive as she had originally thought. She considered for a moment, the energy she had taken from Tasha would allow her to open the lock and keep her cloaking circuit active, she'd just have to take more later. She gently laid her long fingers on the door and concentrated. It opened with a quiet click and she cautiously went inside.

She hovered there for a moment, looking around her. It was a brilliant cover she did have to admit, if she hadn't known that there was a massive facility somewhere below her she would have passed right by this place. The man wasn't there, she didn't think too much of it, he could have been taken away to be cared for, which probably meant that there would be a replacement guard coming along any moment. She was going to have to be quick about this.

She spotted a doorway hung with many strings of beads. Tasha's living space had one of these things too. She seemed to like it but Shaal found the constant jingling to be incredibly irritating. The entrance must be past that doorway. She had just about enough energy left to open one more door. She went through, careful not to set the beads off.

There was no entrance. The room was stacked with junk and papers all of which were very much belonging to the mundane. Shaal was puzzled. This place was an entrance, she was sure of it. She wanted to stay and search more but a replacement guard would no doubt appear any moment soon. She hissed angrily. If her scanning software was still working she would have found the damn way in by now. She swept one arm across the desk, sending papers and brightly coloured pamphlets crashing to the floor and sped away into the night, leaving the door hanging ajar.

She hadn't noticed the simple little switch located behind the desk.

**XxxXxxX**

"Where have you been then?" Tasha called when she heard the door to her flat open and shut. Shaal had gone out sometime while she was asleep and when she had woken up at the crack of dawn to an empty flat, she had thought for a moment that she had dreamed the entire thing. But when sleep didn't return and she had walked into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea, there was a note neatly written on the front page of her new sketchbook.

'Gone to have a look around, be back soon, from Shaal.'

"_I went to look at the boats," _Shaal said dreamily as she drifted into the kitchen. _"They move so gracefully."_

Tasha didn't need to know that this was only half the truth.

"Alright then," Tasha said and took another sip of tea.

"_Was your sleep pleasant?"_

"Yes, I slept fine. I was a bit tired tired last night," Tasha said with a frown. Then she smiled. "Anyway, I'm going to meet one of my friends for lunch today. Are you going to follow me or do you want to have a look around on your own?"

Shaal considered for a moment. _"May I accompany you? I would like to spend some time with you __as well."_

Tasha couldn't help but grin. It was strange to think of Shaal being interested in her. Shaal had travelled through space and probably seen things much more interesting than her grungy flat in Splott, but she still wanted to spend time with her. Besides, who else could say that they had made friends with an actual alien?

"Shaal?"

"_Yes?"_

"Would you mind if I sketched you?"

**XxxXxxX**

"_That would be fine."_

Tasha smiled as she picked up her pencil and sat down at the kitchen table to begin.

"Jack, I've got the results from the blood samples. Quit sulking in there and have a look," Owen called from his desk.

Jack came bursting out of his office almost instantly. He'd been sat worrying in there since Owen had kicked him out of the autopsy room. What if Ianto didn't get better? What if he died before Owen figured out how to treat him?

"I don't sulk," he said as he took the print out from Owen. "I sink into manly repose."

"Whatever, but take a look. It isn't posion."

Jack read the paper carefully. When he finished he looked over the top of it at Owen, eyebrows raised. "Drug overdose?"

Owen motioned for him to follow him down into the autopsy room where Ianto was still lying on the gurney, only now he was hooked up to an IV that was dripping some kind of clear liquid into his bloodstream. He was still flushed and sweating but now that Owen had him on the right treatment, things didn't seem as dire as they had before.

"He's got a huge amount of an anticholinergic, scopolamine in his bloodstream," Owen explained as they looked down at him from either side.

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"It's a deliriant, one of the tropane alkaloids. Commonly used to treat motion sickness, however in large amounts it causes changes in behaviour, agitation, confusion, extreme fear, hallucinations and delirium. Also causes increases in temperature and heart rate."

"Someone paid attention in school," Jack said with a slight grin.

Owen nodded with just a hint of pride before reverting back to professional mode. "Anyway, I've hooked him up with some saline solution to flush out his bloodstream, there isn't really much else I can do other than keep his temperature down and wait for the stuff to burn itself out."

"Will he be okay when he wakes up?"

There was a pause.

"I'm not going to lie to you Jack. If he'd had even just a little more of that stuff in his system we'd be trying to bring him out of a coma right now."

"So?" Jack had a steely look in his eye.

"There's a slight chance he might not be all there when he wakes up," Owen said heavily. "Delirium can sometimes have a lasting effect, especially when drugs are involved."

Jack let out a frustrated sigh. "How the hell did they get involved?"

"I'm guessing it was either injected into him or he inhaled it."

"How? He hasn't left here for days."

Owen shrugged. "Look, I don't know how it happened, all I can do is treat him for overdose and hope he wakes up with his brain still in one piece."

Jack wanted to break something. He should have noticed that something was wrong, called Owen in earlier. He shouldn't have let Ianto stay in the Hub the night before. Being tired had made him an easy target and now he was possibly permanently damaged. But why overdose him? He couldn't think of any alien that secreted scopolamine no matter how hard he tried and besides, just how had it gotten into the hub without any of them noticing?

First the fog and now this. They definitely had a rogue alien life form on their hands. But just what was it playing at? If it had anything to do with the crash then why hadn't it been at the site? Shouldn't it be trying to contact its own people to be rescued rather than attempting to attack Torchwood?

He growled. Too many questions and nowhere near enough answers. He stared at Ianto, stretched out and burning up on the gurney and wished he could do something, anything to make himself feel less useless or to redeem himself in some way. Some boss he was, letting his employees get attacked while at work. Some lover, not noticing that something was wrong.

"If you want to sit with him and do the hand holding and reminiscing about the good times I'll go upstairs," Owen said from behind him.

Jack tried to brush the suggestion off but to his surprise, his throat closed up and he could feel tears burning in his eyes. He bit down on his lip hard to suppress the sensation but with no avail. So he nodded and waited for Owen's footsteps to vanish up into the main work area before tentatively reaching out to grasp Ianto's hand where it rested on top of the sheets. He gently pressed his lips to the palm and wrist before holding it tightly against his chest.

He was still there when Gwen and Tosh came in.


	6. Chapter 6

Tasha tried to listen to Monica as she nattered about her cat, a pair of shoes she'd had to throw away and how she wasn't too thrilled with Kaleb's performance the night before, but she couldn't concentrate. Wasn't Monica aware of the wonder that was out there in the universe? As Monica launched into a rant about her rent going up again, Tasha let her mind wander out of the small greasy café and out into the stars. If Shaal came from another planet, then what else was out there for her to see?

"Hello, you listening?"

She jumped as Monica waved a manicured hand in front of her face. "What?"

"Bloody typical. Tasha Daydream you are, did you hear any of that?"

"Sorry," Tasha said with a grimace. "I'm a bit worn out."

It was true. Since the night before she felt like she'd run a marathon. She'd tried drinking coffee but she'd never really liked the taste and all it did was make her need to go to the bathroom a lot. She wondered if she was still feeling the consequences of that night out the night before last. It wasn't a good sign if it was, when did going out on the town start getting too much of a hassle? Surely not at twenty-two...

She sighed and picked at the basket of chips she'd ordered. They'd gone cold and tasted a bit like greasy cardboard. The place they usually went to had done really nice chips, but it had closed down and since then they'd been trying out new options. None had really come close. Tasha would have been perfectly happy with the last one they'd been to, the food had been nice but Monica had decided that the lack of dinky little salads just wasn't acceptable.

"_Does she irritate you?" _Shaal asked suddenly.

Shaal had been so quiet that Tasha had almost forgotten that she was there and she tried not to startle but was unsuccessful. She jolted and gasped, feeling like a complete idiot.

"Something up?" Monica asked, giving her an odd look.

"Uh, nearly choked," Tasha said lamely.

"Right..." Monica said with a smile that seemed slightly condescending. "Want to have a look around the shops then? We can go into one of your arty places if you want."

"Sure."

As the left the café, Tasha wondered about what Shaal had said. Did Monica irritate her? They were two very different people, Monica cared about her hair and make-up, her clothes always had to be exactly what was trendy at that very moment and she hadn't picked up a book since she left school. Tasha was more than happy to scrape her hair back into a messy, usually lopsided ponytail and leaving the house with just enough make-up to cover up the occasional spot or bags under her eyes wasn't the end of the world. She had worn more or less the same pair of jeans for the past three years and she always had one or two books on the go. At the moment she was reading _Dracula_, just for a laugh.

Sometimes she did have a sneaking suspicion that Monica just dragged her around as an accessory to make her look better, like a handbag. When they went to parties together, Monica often made jokes at her expense then drank too much and had to pass out on Tasha's bed after throwing up everywhere. Sometimes Monica didn't understand that Tasha just wanted to sit on the windowsill of her tiny living room and sketch the view.

"You've drawn that like, a hundred times Tashie darling. Come on, Nikki's found this bar, does ladies free until ten."

Monica didn't see that the view was changing all the time. Depending on the time of day, the season, the weather, the people on the street and Tasha's feelings, the scene was completely different to the way it had been the last time she had put pencil to paper. It was frustrating that her friend couldn't see the world in the same way. Monica was too caught up in the parties and the possessions. Tasha sometimes thought she could manage as a hermit quite well, maybe live in a lighthouse with her sketchbooks and canvases. But she knew she wouldn't be able to stick it out. Most of the hermits she'd read about were mad or dribbling and she didn't really want to spend the rest of her life alone. Despite her occasional hermit tendencies, she was actually quite the romantic.

She thought further on just where she could set up a hermit home, just to distract herself from the sheer boredom that was clothes shopping with Monica. A cave perhaps? A houseboat? She could see herself liking life on a houseboat. She liked the sea. Actually she hadn't been to the beach in ages, she could take the bus out to St. Mary's Well or Swanbridge this weekend, maybe walk across the sandbank to Sully Island at low tide...

"Tasha?"

Monica was holding up something that seemed to be more straps than fabric in a deep purple. Tasha sighed inwardly. She was going to ask for her opinion wasn't she?

"What do you think?"

"Very nice, just your colour."

"_No it isn't."_

Unaware of the scorn she had provoked in the invisible alien hovering behind her friend's shoulder, Monica beamed. "I might go try it on, Kaleb says he want to take me out to dinner this week, I could use something new to wear. Hold my bag for me would you darl?"

Tasha took the bag and followed Monica to the fitting rooms, slumping down on the plush sofa next to a disgruntled looking man, probably the partner of one of the women in the other cubicles.

Monica and Kaleb had been going out for nearly a year now. The first months had been unbearable, they had hardly been able to keep their hands off each other. Every club they went to, every party they attended, they'd be the couple in the corner trying to suck each other's face off. Tasha had found it both awkward and nauseating. Thankfully they had settled down into the standard fairly long-standing relationship, they had plans to move in together, went out to dinner and Monica complained about his habits and mistakes to her friends, but there was no malice, Tasha knew that Monica had it in her head to make an honest man out of Kaleb Reece.

She hadn't told Monica about Ianto. How could she put it? Oh yeah, I have a thing for the cute guy who runs the Tourist Office, I deliver pizza to him a few times a week and make terrible attempts at conversation. We have a real thing going.

"_You're thinking about him again?"_

Tasha wasn't sure if she was actually broadcasting her thoughts like Shaal had taught her by accident or if Shaal was reading her mind, but she answered anyway. _"Yeah, again. Sorry."_

"_It's fine. I can understand."_

"_Did you have anyone you fancied back where you come from?"_

Shaal didn't reply for a moment. _"Yes. His name was Krael."_

"_Did he like you?"_

"_We were partners, since we were very young."_

"_Do you miss him?"_

Another pause. Tasha wondered if perhaps she had wandered into personal territory or if Shaal didn't want to talk about it because it made her homesick. But after a few very long minutes Shaal spoke again.

"_He's dead."_

**XxxXxxX**

It was a difficult day in the Torchwood Hub. Tosh had often heard it said that you don't notice what someone does until they don't do it, and this was proving to be absolutely true. She hadn't realised just how much Ianto did for them until today. It wasn't just the coffee, although they had all noticed that perhaps they might have become slightly dependant on it in order to work to be best of their ability and that the Starbucks coffees just didn't match up to Ianto's concoctions, but almost everything. A Weevil problem near Penylan and none of them could find the keys to the SUV, so Gwen ended up taking Jack in her car and bringing the unconscious alien back by slinging an old beach blanket over it and shoving it in the boot. Then Tosh had needed some older files to see if any of them had information that could help her figure out just what the circuits were for but no matter how long she searched through the archives she just couldn't find anything.

Not only was she possibly experiencing a caffeine withdrawal and couldn't get her damn investigation going, but Jack was in a black, listless mood and it seemed to seep out under his door like black ink and infect the rest of the Hub. Owen was irritable having been up taking care of Ianto since the wee hours of the morning and seemed to think that everything needed shouting at, be it living or inanimate and Tosh couldn't speak to him without being snapped at. Gwen was blaming herself for the whole thing, claiming that she should have noticed that something was seriously wrong with Ianto and taken him to the hospital rather than rushing home and leaving him to get worse.

What made everything even more unbearable was the silence. Other than Owen's occasional bellow of rage, nobody was saying anything. The only sound was of typing, the shuffling of papers and the occasional distraught cry of Myfanwy overhead. The massive reptile had been in a state ever since it had been Gwen who had come up to feed her rather than Ianto and seemed to have picked up that something was wrong. It was utterly miserable.

She decided to put her head in the lion's mouth and head down to the autopsy room. Owen was leaning over the monitor displaying Ianto's vitals and didn't notice her as she came down the stairs. She smiled. For all his prickly exterior and talk of not liking to deal with patients, she knew that Owen actually kind of enjoyed looking after people rather than just cutting up dead bodies. A break from the usual routine.

The warm feeling blossoming in her chest quickly withered when she turned her gaze onto Ianto. He still hadn't woken up and was chalk white, sweat slicking his body.

"How is he?"

Owen whirled around. He had clearly been deep in thought. "Well, he's not dead. It's a start."

"When will he wake up?" she asked, moving closer.

"The sedative wore off a while ago. I think his body is keeping him unconscious while it flushes out the drug. If I'm right, which I probably am, it shouldn't be too long now," Owen said, referring to a clipboard he'd been using to keep track of Ianto's condition. "Heart rate has slowed down at least."

"Well, that's something," Tosh said and smiled up at him.

He stared at her for a moment then nodded quickly and turned back to the monitor. "Yes, yes..."

"Do you want anything? I was thinking of going on another coffee run."

"Oh you beauty, yeah, just the usual thanks."

Tosh left quickly before he noticed the blush that had sprang up on her face. She tried telling herself again that she was hardly being professional but found that she didn't really care. As she was grabbing her purse she wondered if she should check up on Jack. She hadn't seen him since he'd come back from shoving their latest Weevil into the holding cells and it was almost like the time when he'd vanished, he was never this quiet and rather than making her grateful for one less distraction, it was worrying her.

He was sitting slumped at his desk, his head resting on his arms which were folded on the desk top. An empty glass and one of the decanters of scotch (with a good deal missing since the last time she'd seen it) were nearby. She slowly crossed the room and reached out hesitantly to touch his arm.

"Jack?"

He looked up at her with bleary eyes. "Is he awake?"

Tosh felt her heart crack a little at the hopeful tone in his voice. "No, not yet."

"Oh."

She stood there awkwardly for a few moments. "I'm going to get some coffee, do you want some?"

"Nope."

Tosh laid her hand on his arm again. "Owen said it shouldn't be long now."

Jack didn't say anything.

"How much of this have you had?," Tosh asked, moving the decanter out of his reach. "You're no good to us if you're drunk."

"Not much good sober either."

Tosh knelt beside him, trying to see his face. "Don't talk rubbish Jack, you've saved us all more than once."

He still said nothing. She sighed and grabbed his coat from the rack, slinging it over his shoulders.

"Right, you need to clear your head. Come on, we'll go get coffee for the others."

Jack made a noise of protest but Tosh wasn't having any of it. She may not have Gwen's skill with dealing with people, truthfully she'd rather stick to her numbers, but she knew that sitting around and moping wasn't doing Jack any good at all. He was going to come with her and he was going to stop acting like a five-year-old whether he liked it or not. She got the coat on him and hauled him up, which was no mean feat and had just managed to get him out of the office when Owen came barrelling up the stairs, a huge grin on his face.

"Oi Jack! He's awake!"


	7. Chapter 7

_Well, regular posting is quite possibly going to go flying out the window after today, I have to go back to school and exams and so on. So it may be a bit until the next chapter makes its appearance, or it may not. All depends. Anyway, I've rambled enough, please, enjoy._

* * *

><p>The mixture of joy and relief that had built up in Jack's chest faded and died when he first saw Ianto. He was just lying there, staring at the ceiling with blank eyes. Jack couldn't hold back the shocked sob that tore from his throat and went to sit in the chair by the bedside, stumbling with grief and the lingering effect of the alcohol. Ianto didn't even seem to register that he was there. Jack grasped clumsily for his hand and buried his face in Ianto's chest.<p>

Then he felt fingers tangling themselves through his hair. He looked up, hardly daring to hope and was met with a tired smile.

"Sorry, I was a bit out of it there. Was just thinking about my dreams, you wouldn't believe how weird they were."

Jack stared at him for a moment. He wanted to cry with relief, he wanted to laugh hysterically, he wanted to shout at Ianto for worrying him so badly, he wanted to be held and told that everything was alright again and he really didn't think he could manage to do all of them at once without exploding. So he settled for leaning over and kissing Ianto right there in the middle of the autopsy room with an audience of three.

"Careful," Ianto hissed, pulling away. "There's needles and wires stuck everywhere."

Jack leapt back like he'd been stung, eyes flicking over Ianto, checking that he hadn't done any damage. "Sorry, I didn't hurt you did I?"

Ianto rolled his eyes. "If I had a pound for every time you've said that... Then I'd have... Well, a few quid anyway."

Owen felt the need to break this up before it got even mushier. He shooed Jack away from the bed, picking up his clipboard and taking up the spot by the bed. He smiled slightly grimly at Ianto and leaned forwards, resting his chin on his clasped hands.

"Now, look, there is a possibility that the scopolamine-"

"Oh. Was that what it was?"

Owen gave him a stern look. "Look, I need to make sure that the stuff hasn't scrambled your tiny mind."

A worried expression briefly flickered across Ianto's features but he seemed to catch himself and nodded. "Alright then."

Gwen and Tosh exchanged concerned glances, both of them unable to help sneaking a peek at Jack who was standing behind Owen, his face a stony mask. What were they going to do if he wasn't able to keep working? What was Jack going to do? Gwen walked over and laid a comforting hand on Jack's shoulder and squeezed gently. His eyes met hers for a second, then they dropped back to Ianto as Owen adjusted the gurney so that Ianto could sit up comfortably. When he was upright Owen began the questions.

"Okay then. Name?" Owen asked.

"Ianto Jones."

"Age?"

"Twenty-three."

Gwen felt her heart clench. God, he was so young. She always forgot how young he was. She thought of Lisa, of what Jack had quietly told her about the battle of Canary Wharf after Ianto had left on his suspension. How on his first field mission he'd been captured and beaten by cannibals. How he'd taken Suzie's body away when they'd brought it back, cleaned it, dressed it and then stored it away in the morgue. How he'd had to watch Jack lying there, cold and dead in a body bag, believing he'd lost another lover. He should be out clubbing with his mates, having fun, going to Sunday dinner with his family. Instead he was lying on a gurney in an autopsy room in an underground base after being attacked by an enemy that they knew nothing about.

How was that fair?

"Where are you now?"

"The Hub, headquarters of Torchwood Three, in the dragon's den, also known as Owen's autopsy room."

"Terrible sense of humour is still there. Pets?"

"One, a pterodactyl. Though I have been thinking of getting a cat."

"Well then Teaboy, it looks like the drug didn't get too far into that thick Welsh skull of yours," Owen said with a grin. "We'll keep you in under observation for a bit, make sure everything is functioning properly, then you're free to go."

Ianto nodded and lay back, closing his eyes. There was a pause. "You don't all have to stand around looking sorry. Go do something useful and don't make too much mess."

Tosh let out a strangled laugh which may have been disguising a sob. Gwen put an arm around her and led her back up into the workspace. Tosh collapsed into her chair and covered her face with her hands and just sat there, her shoulders shaking violently with almost silent sobs. When she finally surfaced she gave Gwen a watery smile.

"I'm sorry. It's just awful, all I could think of was how awful it must have been for him. How long was he lying there until Jack found him?"

Gwen frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The Tourist Office. It's a mess, he collapsed up there didn't he?" Toshiko asked, frowning.

Gwen shook her head. "No, Jack said he collapsed in his office."

"Then why was it such a mess up there?" Tosh said slowly. "I thought he'd lost consciousness and fallen across the desk."

"I didn't really stop to look," Gwen admitted. "I wanted to see him, you know?"

Tosh spun around in the chair, her fingers racing across her keyboard as she pulled up the CCTV footage from the dummy office from the night before. It was empty. They watched themselves leave one after the other. Then there was a pause for a few hours before Owen reappeared, racing through the office on his way to see to Ianto. There was another pause. Then the door opened but nobody appeared to walk in.

"That's strange..." Tosh murmured.

Then as they watched, the papers and pamphlets on the desk suddenly toppled to the floor as if an invisible arm had swept across its surface. Then the door slammed shut.

"What the hell was that?" Gwen asked, her eyes wide.

"I have no idea," Tosh replied quietly.

"Could it still be here?"

Tosh thought for a moment. "I have no idea. If it had gotten into the main area of the Hub then we'd know all about it but... It looks like whatever it was just left."

"We have to tell Jack," Gwen said, striding back to the autopsy room.

Tosh nodded and began scanning the Hub, if something had gotten past the security systems then she'd find it, before it hurt anyone else.

**XxxXxxX**

Tasha shut the door of her apartment after her and went through to her living room and collapsed down onto the sofa. She hated shopping with Monica. It wasn't that she didn't like her, she did, but the shops that Monica wanted to go to never sold things that she would wear and there were always so many people packed into the tiny spaces. Plus, everything was priced far too high for what it was worth and that was essentially robbery as far as she was concerned. Then whenever they went into a shop that she liked, Monica would whinge. She'd be trying to choose a new book and Monica would be complaining that she was bored, loudly and obnoxiously.

Shaal on the other hand had been genuinely interested in her books and her art. She had admired half-finished sketches of herself, asking if she might be able to keep one and had praised Tasha's collection of novels, examining them with quiet enthusiasm. Tasha could help but feel that perhaps she liked spending time with Shaal more than Monica.

"_Are you tired?"_

"A little. It's just... Monica," Tasha said exasperatedly.

"_She is... Loud."_

Tasha laughed. "You noticed then."

"_I found it hard not to."_

Shaal was hovering in front of the window. Tasha could see the street beyond clearly through her strange, transparent flesh. The multitude of circuits embedded in her body made funny dark patches on her skin. Tasha hadn't asked just what they were for. Shaal didn't seem to have any organs so perhaps they replaced them? Even if that was really quite strange. But she didn't want to think about it too hard at the moment. She was ridiculously tired.

"If it's alright, I might just go lie down for a bit," Tasha said, getting to her feet. A quick nap on her bed would do her a world of good, maybe a cup of tea later and then she'd be all set for her shift tonight.

She drew the curtains in her cramped, beige bedroom and lay down on the bed. As she lay in that warm, pleasant state of being almost asleep but not quite, she wondered if perhaps she'd get to see Ianto. Probably not three nights in a row, but she could perhaps drop in? If she had the courage... With this thought, Tasha slipped into sleep.

She was awoken by a gentle, cool touch on her face.

"Whaizzit?"

"_It is only me. I was going to go for a walk. Would you like to come with me? Fresh air will wake you up."_

Tasha rubbed a hand over her face as she sat up, blinking blearily. She glanced over at the alarm clock. Five already? She'd been out for four hours, she must have been more tired than she had thought. She ran her hands through her mussed up hair to try and tame it, nodding to the alien.

"Sure, there's a park just around the corner, we can go there."

The fresh air did make her feel better, the damp chill of the air was bracing and refreshing. She felt as though a fog in her head had been cleared. Shaal was quiet, not having any questions or comments about her surroundings for once. Something in the back of Tasha's mind was telling her that perhaps befriending an alien wasn't the safest thing she could have done, what if it turned on her? What if it was using her? The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she found herself becoming.

The park was deserted when they arrived. It was really only a scabby patch of grass with a few spindly trees, a slide and some swings that were always broken. Old beer cans and cigarettes littered the area around the lone, thoroughly vandalised bench, the glass crunching under Tasha's feet as she walked across to it and sat down. For a moment she wished she'd brought her sketchbook, there was something she liked about the patterns the glass shards made across the concrete.

Then something in the back of her mind snapped. She turned away from the glass and stared in the direction she thought that Shaal might be in.

"_What do you really want Shaal?"_

There was a pause and Tasha could have sworn she had heard a harsh hiss, like an angry cat. She suddenly felt nervous, her heart speeding up sweat springing up on her face. Then the moment passed and Shaal spoke.

"_To help you."_

"_Help me do what?"_

"_To achieve what you are hoping for."_

Tasha frowned. _"But why?"_

A pleasant, sweet scent filled the air again, one that she found strangely familiar. Her worry faded away and was replaced by a warm, safe feeling. She relaxed and smiled, it was okay. Shaal wanted to help her, everything was fine.

"_Because you're special Tasha," _Shaal said sweetly. Tasha wasn't to know the truth, she only needed to hear what she wanted. That she was special and that her wishes would come true, it was what all the humans she had seen wanted.

"_I'm sorry I doubted you Shaal. Thank you," _Tasha said, an eerie, childlike smile playing about on her lips.

Shaal settled on the bench beside her, wrapping her arms around Tasha in a close embrace. _"What is it you hope for most child?"_

Tasha's strange smile widened. _"I want Ianto."_

Shaal nuzzled at Tasha's neck. _"Then you will have him."_

Then Tasha suddenly stiffened, her eyes widening as Shaal pressed even closer, drawing the hope and energy out of her. Then that beautific smile reappeared for a moment before she slumped unconscious in Shaal's arms.

Shaal laid her down gently and once she was satisfied that the girl wasn't going to wake up, she touched a finger to Tasha's temple. It wasn't hard to twist and rearrange the mind of her 'friend'. If Shaal had possessed a mouth she might have grinned. When she was finished, she moved away and gazed at the human curled up on the bench, sleeping sweetly.

Natasha Parker was going to be a valuable tool in the days to come.

**XxxXxxX**

"Now I know how animals in the zoo feel," Ianto said as Gwen peered down at him from above. Despite the grumble, he had a companionable smile on his face as he looked back up at her.

She smiled back. "We were worried about you."

"If I thought that I might be stuck drinking Starbucks for the rest of my career, I would be too," Ianto said, his face completely deadpan, but the glint in his eye gave his amusement away.

Since Gwen and Tosh had discovered the strange CCTV footage, it had been all go. They had scanned the Hub from basements to the top of the water tower, searched the place themselves, watched all other CCTV recordings from around that time and inbetween all this they had poked their heads over the railings to check that Ianto was okay. Ianto had passed the time dozing and reading the comics out of the paper then doing the crosswords.

Gwen came down and sat beside him, smoothing his sheets. "How are you feeling?"

"Massive headache," Ianto said with a grimace. "Bit bored too. Could use a sudoku book or something."

Gwen didn't see how a book full of number puzzles was going to help with his headache, but said nothing. It was nice to hear him sounding more or less like his usual self. He was still pale and shaky, but he had a little more colour in his cheeks than he had this morning.

"Is Jack going to come and visit soon?" he asked quietly.

He hadn't seen Jack all day. After Gwen had told him about the possible intruder he had given his hand one last squeeze and then vanished for the rest of the day.

"He's been busy, I'm sure he'll stop by later," she said.

Ianto twiddled his thumbs awkwardly. "He isn't angry is he?"

Gwen felt her heart melt a little. Lying there all pale and broken and he was still worrying about everyone else. Bless him. She took his hand and stroked her thumb across the back of it and gave him a reassuring smile. "Why on earth would he be angry with you?"

"Because I let my guard down."

Even though, deep down, Gwen was madly jealous of Ianto she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Under that stoic, tough outer shell was a soft, vulnerable centre.

"I think he feels guilty more than anything. Give him some time," she smiled at him again. "He was worried sick about you."

Ianto nodded. "Thanks," he said awkwardly, the mask slipping back into place. Gwen sighed. Men and their need to appear tough all the time.

Then she jumped about a foot when suddenly a triumphant cry erupted from Owen back up at his desk.

"EU-FUCKING-REKA!"


	8. Chapter 8

_Sorry for the delay in getting this posted, school has been nuts. Enjoy._

* * *

><p>"Dammit Owen!" Gwen shouted as she stomped up the stairs. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"<p>

Owen didn't seem to care too much. He was holding up one of the circuits from Tosh's desk and gazing at it like he had just found the meaning of the universe in it or that it had just given him the key to understanding women. He turned to Gwen with a massive grin on his face and thrust the circuit at her.

"I've done it! I am a fucking genius!"

Gwen glanced at Tosh who shrugged. "And... How are you a genius exactly?"

Owen was halfway across the workspace towards Jack's office. "I'll explain, I need the boardroom though... Jack!"

"Right..." Gwen muttered, rolling her eyes.

"What happened?" called a small voice from the autopsy room.

Tosh hopped up from her desk and hurried down to tell Ianto what had happened, leaving Gwen to trail after Owen to see just what he had discovered.

A little while later they were all sat around the table in the boardroom, minus Ianto who had been plied with another crossword and promises to tell him everything as soon as they could. It had taken a lot of convincing to keep him in the bed and Gwen had reason to believe that he had been sulking when they had left him. But now her attention was focused on Dr Harper in all his professional, enthusiastic glory. He was actually gleeful, like a little boy with a frog in his pocket. She couldn't help giggling at that, Owen must have been a terror as a child.

"So, Owen?" Jack asked, one eyebrow arched, shooting Gwen an irritated glance.

"Right, so these things," Owen said, launching into his explanation and holding up the circuit so they could all see it. "Tosh couldn't figure out what was powering them right?"

Tosh looked embarrassed. Owen didn't seem to notice and carried on talking.

"These are in fact powered by electrical signals-"

"No they aren't," Tosh said tersely. "I checked."

Owen's grin widened. "Wrong electricity. These are powered by electrical signals from the brain, they weren't just covered in that goop. They were grafted into it on purpose. See, I figured out what the goo is," he paused for emphasis.

"Get to the point Owen," Jack said tiredly.

"It's made up of brain cells," Owen said triumphantly. "I didn't figure it out until I took a closer look at the circuits. There's indentations in the goo that match with the circuits perfectly. The bones are it's skeleton, the goo doubles as flesh and the brain and the circuits have been added by the creatures themselves. I'd assume for protection, it's just a walking brain with a bone structure."

A strangled noise from Jack dragged their attention away from Owen. Jack was staring at Owen in horror, as if he'd just told him that he had a grey hair.

"What's the matter?" Gwen asked urgently.

Jack turned to her, his face grey with shock. "Dr Harper here just described something I didn't want to hear from ever again."

"Well what is it?" Tosh asked, leaning over the table.

"An Acherite."

**XxxXxxX**

Tasha woke up feeling like her head had been split open. It was dark, she was freezing cold and she had no idea where she was. She bit back a whimper and slowly sat up. She was still at the park, laid out on the bench. The swings creaked ominously in the wind and the leafless branches of the trees looked like twisted fingers reaching up into the sky. She checked her phone, two missed calls. It was seven o'clock. She jumped up off the bench and looked around the park for Shaal.

She was hovering over by the slide, looking even more unusual in the dim glow of the street lamps nearby.

"Shaal!" she shouted angrily. "What's going on? I'm so late, why didn't you wake me up?"

"_I was scared."_

"Of what?"

"_You collapsed. It scared me," _Shaal replied sadly.

Tasha wanted to scream in frustration but she knew it wouldn't help. She had to get to work soon. She glanced around the dark streets and began to run. She could try and catch a cab, it'd be fine. It was all going to be fine. If she kept telling herself that then she wouldn't have to admit how scared she was. What was wrong with her? She'd collapsed, that was never good, she should probably go to a doctor. She shook her head and kept on running, she didn't have time to think about this, she had to get to work.

She made it in one piece. Ben looked up over the counter and scowled.

"Where have you been then? I had to get Sam in to fill in for you."

Tasha shook her head. "Problem with my plumbing," she said. She'd come up with the excuse while in the taxi. "Had to wait for the guy to fix it and clean up. I would have called but..."

Ben shrugged and waved a hand. "It's fine."

It wasn't, he was still angry. He was giving her a disappointed look and it made her feel about three years old again. She sighed.

"I can do tomorrow night as well," she offered. "Make up for the hours I missed."

"You have a deal Miss Parker," Ben said, finally cracking a smile.

"You bastard!" Tasha laughed, realising that he'd been having her on.

Ben just grinned and handed her the list. She scanned it, no Ianto tonight. She tried not to be disappointed, he could hardly live on pizza. It would have made the day a bit better if she'd gotten to see him again. Maybe she could drop in on him, just quickly. He'd looked exhausted yesterday, she could always say she was just there to see how he was. The more she thought about it, the better the idea sounded. She'd drop by once she'd finished her deliveries.

Of course, this wasn't entirely her own idea, but she didn't need to know that. Shaal, following along behind her hummed happily. The test was working beautifully.

**XxxXxxX**

Ianto stared at the ceiling. He'd been doing that an awful lot since he'd woken up earlier. He'd spotted several large cobwebs that needed his attention and a few patches of moss that would have to go. He felt terrible. His head ached, his mouth tasted disgusting and he felt shivery and fragile, as if a good gust of wind would snap him in two. The drug was more or less out of his system and he was at least marginally more comfortable, he was beginning to get restless as well which he took as being a good sign.

The others had clattered down from the boardroom and gotten started on various tasks, leaving him to wonder just what the hell Owen had discovered. Tosh and Gwen still hadn't come down to tell him what had happened and Owen had just grabbed some of the goo and dashed back up the stairs without answering any of his questions. He hadn't removed the IV either and it had run out of fluid ages ago.

Jack... Still hadn't come to see him. He tried telling himself that it was because he was busy and that it shouldn't bother him.

It wasn't working.

"Ianto?"

He looked up to see Gwen. He smiled. "Hello."

"Jack wants to know if you're feeling okay."

He managed to suppress the big, daft grin he knew was coming. "I'm better than I was," he said nonchalantly.

"Good. It's just that Owen needs the room to run some tests and he says if you're feeling alright then you can probably go home."

Ianto frowned. Not out of any interest then, just wanted to know so he could get him out of the way. Lovely that, charming. He nodded. "That'll be fine, will Owen be down to take this thing out of my arm or do I have to take it out myself?"

"I'll go get him," Gwen said and vanished from Ianto's sight.

Well, at least he'd be out of bed at any rate. He still didn't know what they'd found out mind. He huffed and lay back on the pillows and tried his hardest not to sulk. His Mam had always said that it wasn't an attractive look.

"Righto Teaboy," Owen said briskly as he came down the stairs. "Let's get you the hell out of my autopsy room."

Ianto rolled his eyes. When he was unhooked from the IV he swung his legs over the side of the gurney and hopped down. His legs were stiff and the pyjama bottoms he was wearing were a bit too long for him, they belonged to Jack who had wrestled him into them before Owen arrived to protect his dignity. Or at least, that's what Owen had told him, he couldn't really remember himself.

"Gwen's gonna drive you home," Owen said as he rummaged through the refrigerator. "No driving for a few days and if I see you here tomorrow I will sedate your sorry arse, we clear?"

"Yes," Ianto muttered.

He walked up into the main workspace, feeling utterly ridiculous and naked in just the pyjamas. Tosh and Gwen thankfully didn't look up at him, either because they were being nice or because they were totally immersed in what they were doing. He slunk over to the cog door, determinedly not looking into Jack's office.

"Just going to get some stuff from the office," he called to Gwen. "I'll meet you up there."

Gwen glanced up as he left and spotted Jack slipping out of his office and following after him. She smiled and raised her eyebrows at Tosh who winked back.

Upstairs in the office, Ianto pushed aside the bead curtain and went into the back room. He'd seen a pair of jeans and a t-shirt in here when he'd picked up his suit the other day. They'd do, he was only going home. He pulled the clothes out of the filing cabinet he'd secreted them in and began to change. As he pulled the shirt over his head he became aware that there was someone watching him, the sound of the beads clicking together alerting him to their presence. He whirled around, expecting an intruder and instead was confronted with Jack Harkness leaning against the doorframe.

"I enjoyed that," he said with a grin.

Ianto blushed. "Yes, well, you would."

Jack was looking at him strangely. "Are you alright?"

"I feel shit really," Ianto said with a sniff as he picked the pyjamas up off the floor and slung them over the filing cabinet. He'd tidy them up later. "Everything aches."

Jack laughed softly and came further into the room, standing right in front of Ianto. Ianto tried not to look at him but Jack gently took his face in his hands and tilted his head to gaze into his eyes. Then he gently lowered his lips to Ianto's in a sweet kiss that made all of the angry, irritable thoughts Ianto held towards him dissolve. Jack's hands left his face and rested firmly on his waist and pulled him closer so that they were pressed up against each other, his thumbs hooking into the waistband of his jeans.

"You go home," Jack breathed, pulling away. "I'll be round later."

Ianto smiled as Jack pressed another kiss to his cheek.

"And I want to see you in bed," Jack continued, kissing down his throat gently. "Or in front of the TV."

"Okay," Ianto murmured, gasping a little when Jack reached his collarbones.

"I'll make breakfast yeah?" Jack grinned and nipped at Ianto's collarbone again. He loved how sensitive those were.

Ianto nodded.

"Good," Jack said and gave him one last kiss before letting him go.

**XxxXxxX**

Tasha parked up and hurried towards the office. She had firmly lectured herself the entire way there about chickening out. If this went well, then maybe next time she could ask for his number, then she could see if he'd come out for a drink. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach and despite the bitter nip of the wind her palms were sweating like crazy. It was pretty gross. Shaal was following along behind, still remorsefully silent over what had happened.

She knocked and let herself in. But rather than Ianto, a devastatingly handsome man was sitting behind the desk, rummaging through the drawers. He looked up sharply when she came in then relaxed and flashed her a forty watt smile. Despite his looks, Tasha decided she didn't like him. He seemed too... Cocky.

"Hi."

"Uh," she managed to stammer out. "Is Ianto here?"

He shook his head. "Nope. Just went home, he's sick. Why?"

She shrugged, not wanting to meet those striking eyes. "Just popped in to see him," she said, horribly conscious of the flush rising on her cheeks.

The man looked irritated for a split second then he smiled warmly. "I'll tell him you dropped by."

There was an awkward silence. Well, it was awkward for Tasha, the man didn't seem too troubled.

"Who are you?" she asked finally.

"Jack Harkness," the man, Jack, replied. "I'm Ianto's boss."

There was something about the way he said this that Tasha didn't like. It was almost like he was claiming Ianto. She dismissed the idea, she was just tired and thrown off by the strangeness of seeing someone else in the office.

"Well, thanks," she said and left.

"_I didn't like him," _Shaal said later as Tasha unlocked her front door.

Tasha didn't reply. She was tired and disappointed. It had been a horrible day right from the start and Jack Harkness had thrown her right off. She just wanted to go home and crawl into bed and hope that things would look better in the morning. They usually did.

"_They always do," _Shaal said sweetly as she slid one arm around Tasha's shoulders.

Tasha screamed as the needle buried itself into her arm and then everything went black.


	9. Chapter 9

"Tosh?"

Tosh looked up from her computer. "Yes Jack?"

"There was a girl upstairs, said she was looking for Ianto. Could you check the CCTV? I want to know if she's been here before."

"On it," Tosh said and turned back to the screens.

Jack smiled fondly at her and then retreated into his office. He sat down heavily in his chair and leaned back, clasping his hands behind his head. It had been one hell of a long day. First Ianto, then the Acherite... Shit, the Acherite. How long had it been since he'd come across one of them? He'd just left the Time Agency and had been on the run for only a few weeks... Christ, that was ridiculous. So why had one turned up now?

He twiddled with a pen, doodling in the margins of one of his reports. Ianto would have his guts for that, but he was too caught up in his thoughts to stop. He'd arrived on Acheron in the middle of some kind of civil unrest. He'd turned up in the middle of a forest after a desperate escape from some very angry aliens. Or at least, he'd thought it was a forest until he realised that the trees were all made up of some weird kind of clear crystal. It had been dark and the crystals all made a creepy low hum that had rattled his nerves. He'd gotten hopelessly lost pretty quickly and would have just up and left if he hadn't come across a band of rebels camped in a clearing.

The first thing that had struck him was how beautiful they had been. The long limbs, big eyes and translucent skin had all thrown him off for a moment and a haze had settled over his mind. All he wanted to do was get one of them alone for a little 'getting to know each other'. Once they had gotten over their initial surprise from his sudden stumbling into their camp they had been friendly, welcoming. If he'd been in the right state of mind he would have said too friendly.

They had sat him by their fire and the leader, a female named Leeal had told him what they were doing miles away from the nearest city in a forest or crystal formation or whatever the hell it had been. Acheron was ruled by an Emperor and his Imperial Elite. They were apparently cruel, twisted individuals who were squeezing the life out of the people and Leeal and her rebels were plotting to bring the Imperial family and their supporters down. Normally he wouldn't have gotten involved. Maybe he would have filched a few fancy bits of technology, maybe the crystal tree things were valuable and left.

But he hadn't. His mistake was letting Leeal take his hand and lead him away from the group. His mistake was hoping she'd let him show her just what a good time was. Scratch that, his mistake was not checking which planet he was transporting himself to. By the time he'd realised what they had done to him he was lying face down in the burning ruins of the Imperial Palace, utterly drained of all his energy. He'd been starving. There was no food that was consumed physically on Acheron. They fed off each other's energy in a mutually beneficial partnership, usually with their mate. The energy was used to power the circuits they embedded in their bodies and by sharing, they kept power evenly divided.

Leeal had been feeding off him for days and she hadn't had to give anything back, keeping him close by emitting powerful pheromones that had him trailing after her like a puppy. She had kept him wanting and hoping. Hope made people open up, made them more receptive to anything that would grant them their wishes and that made it easy to get inside his head and drain him of everything.

Leeal took over Acheron by using his energy to power the weapons of her army and then left him for dead on the floor of the palace.

Was it Leeal back again? If it was, just what did she want and was it her who had attacked Ianto?

He groaned and rubbed a hand over his face. He needed to check through the archives, perhaps there was a file tucked away somewhere that had more information to add to what he knew. He sighed. He needed Ianto there to produce the files he needed with a flick of deft fingers and one of those small, warm smiles. He checked the clock, only just gone half past eight. He couldn't just drop everything and leave now, not now they knew just what they were dealing with. Could he?

Jack muttered irritably under his breath and got up to search the archives. Ten, he would be out of here by ten or he was going to go insane.

**XxxXxxX**

Gwen stood awkwardly behind Ianto as he fumbled with the keys to his front door. She had always pictured him living in a swanky, modern block of flats with lots of spotless white carpet and stainless steel. Instead, Ianto lived in a tiny terraced house on the edge of Penylan. She had meant to just drop him off, but a niggling little voice at the back of her head had told her that she wouldn't be doing right by just dumping him outside his house, not in the state he was in and she should make sure he was okay before she left. Also she was indulging the nosey side of herself and wanted to see just where Ianto Jones hung his hat.

"Do you want to come in?" Ianto asked over his shoulder as he pushed the door open. "Cup of tea before you have to get back?"

Gwen could see the knowing, amused look in his eyes and blushed. He'd caught her out. "Yes, actually. That'd be lovely."

He smiled and held the door for her and she stepped through into a narrow corridor leading directly to a flight of stairs, a door with a large misted glass frame to her right that lead through into a small living room. Ianto switched on the light and gestured for her to sit on the battered sofa, slipping through another door on the other side of the room where she could hear him clattering around getting mugs and putting the kettle on. Gwen looked around. It was all a bit shabby really, there were worn patches on the carpet and the wallpaper was an unimaginative beige. There weren't any picture frames or any real hint that anyone lived there, aside from the books that jostled each other for space, stuffed into the glass fronted cabinet that was clearly intended for china, not literature.

"Ianto, let me," she called, getting up and following him. The thrill of satisfying her curiosity had faded considerably. It felt strange being here, like she was intruding. "You should be resting."

The kitchen was, like the hallway and the living, tiny. It seemed smaller because of the dark, sage green of the floor tiles and equally dark walls. Even with the light on, it seemed gloomy and the overhead cabinets seemed to take up far too much space.

Ianto looked up from the mail he had been shuffling through. "Go ahead, kettle should be done soon."

Gwen nodded. She looked him over. He was pale and he looked strange in the jeans and t-shirt. It was like seeing school kids in mufti.

"I thought you'd have lived in a flat," she said conversationally as she dropped tea bags into the mugs.

He chuckled. "Quite a few people say that. I suppose you don't find many people my age living in a house in the suburbs."

Again, Gwen remembered just how young he was and flinched. She recovered before he noticed. "So why do you live here then?"

The was a strained silence and Gwen realised that she'd just blundered into private territory.

"Lisa."

Her heart sank. When was she going to stop putting her foot in it when it came to Lisa? First that daft last kiss game she'd come up with out in the Brecon Beacons, now this.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, turning away from the sink to look at him. But rather than the sad, tearful expression she had expected, he was composed, still going through the mail.

"My uncle had this place," he said, tossing aside a supermarket advertisement. "He and my aunt lived here for a while but they wanted a bigger place. They kept it for my cousin to have when he left home, rented it out. He wanted to go to London though and it just happened that as he left, the Battle of Canary Wharf left me out in the cold. My aunt and uncle let me have the place."

"That's nice," Gwen said, not sure how Lisa was fitting into all this.

"I wouldn't have taken the offer up if it hadn't been for Lisa. I thought she'd get better and we could live here together in a proper house," Ianto continued, throwing down the last of the envelopes.

"I'm so sorry Ianto," Gwen said softly, sitting down at the table beside him.

He shook his head. "It's okay."

Gwen paused. "Do you have nightmares about it still?"

Ianto gave her a sharp look. "Why?"

"It's just... When you were..." she struggled to find the right word. "Ill. You thought I was Lisa. You were terrified Ianto and... I wondered... I'm sorry, it's none of my business."

He stared at the steam rising from the kettle for a moment. "You don't forget the ones you loved Gwen. Especially not when something like that happens to them. But it's gotten easier. It won't go away, it never will but once you come to terms and let go..." he trailed off.

Thankfully the kettle finished boiling just at that point and he smiled at her. She got up and poured out the water, only speaking to ask if he took milk or sugar. They went through into the living room and Ianto sat down in the armchair and Gwen perched on the sofa. They talked about her wedding and whether Ianto should get a cat or not, about how Rhys' car had packed up the other day and the merits of Tesco's packet lasagne. Anything that wasn't alien or Torchwood. After a while Ianto said he was tired and wanted to go to bed so she had left. As she drove back to the Hub she realised just how surreal the whole thing had been.

"What's that face for?" Jack asked her as she dumped her bag on her chair.

She blinked a few times, a confused look on her face. "I just had a conversation over a cup of tea with another member of Torchwood that had nothing to do with aliens."

"Someone contact the world records people," Owen said from his desk.

"Oh save it."

"Jack?" Tosh called from her computer. "I found her."

"Found who?" Gwen asked, trailing after Jack.

Tosh had several windows open, each showing a moment of CCTV footage with the same girl in them each time. She was pretty in a mousey kind of way, Gwen thought. She was holding a pizza box in each one.

"A delivery girl," Tosh said, sitting back in her chair. She pointed at the date and time on the corner of one of the windows. "And look, she was here just a few hours before Ianto started to act strangely."

Gwen glanced at Tosh, then back at the image on the screen. "You think she has something to do with it?"

Tosh shrugged. "Not that I can see. If anything happened, it was too subtle for the camera to pick up."

Jack frowned. "Can you check Jubilee Pizza's employee files, find out who she is?"

"Just a moment," Tosh muttered, her fingers flying over the keys as she made mincemeat of Jubilee Pizza's security systems. Photos flashed up on the screen, comparing to a still she had taken of the girl's face from the video footage. "Got her. Natasha Parker, nineteen, lives in Splott."

Jack nodded. "I think we need to pay Miss Parker a visit, just in case."

"Wait a moment Jack," Tosh muttered. "She won't be at home."

"Why not?"

"Reports are coming in, she's just been hospitalised."

Jack leaned over her shoulder. "What? Why?"

"Collapse, cause unknown. Condition stable but she's still unconscious."

"Well, there's not much point in going to see if if she's out cold," Gwen said.

Jack nodded slowly. If he was right and Natasha Parker was involved with all this then it was possible that her collapse was to do with a certain alien species. But Gwen was right. If she was unconscious then she wasn't going to be telling them anything. But more importantly, if she wasn't awake and feeling emotions then she was safe from the Acherite for now. It probably wasn't even anywhere near her now that she was rendered useless. They would have to wait until she was awake before they went to the hospital.

"Okay then guys, let's call it a night," he said, standing up straight. "Gwen, Owen, I want you two at the hospital as soon as she's awake-"

"What?" Owen moaned. "Why me, can't you go?"

"Because she's seen me and thinks I'm to do with the tourist office. If I show up and start asking questions then she's going to get suspicious."

"Fine," Owen muttered.

Jack smiled and waited for them to leave. Then he left the Hub himself, heading for a certain small house on the edge of Penylan.

He was freezing by the time he'd walked there, the cold wind whipping in from the sea. The windows of the house were dark, Ianto had probably gone to bed. He grinned and pulled out a small key from his coat pocket and let himself in. He shut the door behind him and crept silently up the stairs, heading for the only bedroom in the house.

The lump huddled under the covers shifted and mumbled sleepily when he entered, bleary eyes peering out over the top of the blankets.

"Hey," Jack said gently, sitting on the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling?"

Ianto said something that sounded like 'alright'.

"Got room for one more?"

The blanket was thrown back as an invitation. Jack grinned and paused only to strip down to his boxers before climbing into the bed, pressing up close to Ianto's back.

"You're cold," Ianto complained.

"Sorry."

"It's alright," Ianto yawned and wriggled around to face Jack, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him even closer. "I'm warm."


	10. Chapter 10

I am so sorry about the massive delay there has been with this chapter. School just finished for me and exams are rearing their ugly heads so I've not had too much time to write. Also, this chapter is very blatantly filler material so I've thrown in some gratuitous snuggling as an apology. Anyway, I'll shut up and let you get on with it, please, enjoy.

* * *

><p>Tasha had always been terrified of hospitals, ever since she was a little girl. It had never made sense to her that a place which existed solely to make people feel better should be so stark and cold. The doctors and nurses may be kind and address her by her name but she knew they really only thought of her by her national health number. It was too white, the ward filled with the soft breathing, coughs and groans in the other beds. She had pulled the curtains around her bed and huddled under the covers and tried to block out the memories she had of this place.<p>

How Mattie had been brought here and had never come back home.

"Natasha?"

She raised her head, blinking back the hot tears welling in her eyes. The nurse was peering around the curtain, a chirpy smile plastered across her face.

"Dr Harper has just arrived to see you," she said as she helped Tasha to sit up, straightening her blankets and smoothing them down.

"Who is Dr Harper?" Tasha asked.

The nurse smiled at her. "A specialist."

Tasha nodded. Another one. She had woken up about two hours ago and had been prodded and poked at by at least five doctors in that space of time. Despite their cheery smiles and comforting words, she knew they were at a total loss as to what had caused her to collapse. She didn't know either. She would have asked Shaal if she knew but her friend was nowhere to be found. Tasha didn't mind. She knew Shaal would be nearby, keeping her safe. Because Shaal wanted to help.

She smiled dreamily.

"Hello Natasha," a voice said, bringing her out of her thoughts.

The man who had pulled the curtain back was a skinny, dark haired young man with sharp, keen eyes that flicked over her and made her feel suddenly conscious of her unwashed hair and hospital issue pyjamas. At his shoulder was a brunette woman in a leather jacket. Tasha felt a twinge of jealousy. This woman held herself with confidence and her wide eyes were ridiculously pretty. She smiled kindly at her and Tasha realised with a jolt that unlike the regulation smiles of the nurses, this smile was a genuine one.

"I'm Dr Owen Harper," the man said as he sat down on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs at her bedside. "This is my associate Gwen Cooper."

"Hi," Tasha said shyly.

The woman nodded. "Hello."

"Right then Natasha-"

"Just Tasha thanks," Tasha found herself saying. "Only my mum calls me Natasha."

Dr Harper paused for a moment then nodded. "Alright Tasha. Let's see what's up shall we?" he said, producing a handful of medical tools out of the pocket of his white lab coat, which was covered in badges.

Tasha sat still, opened her mouth when she was told so Dr Harper could peer down it, let him shine a light in her eyes and take a blood sample. All the while Gwen stood quietly, smiling slightly when Tasha glanced at her. How she could manage to stand there and not look awkward was utterly beyond Tasha. Finally Dr Harper put the last piece of equipment back in his pockets and stood back.

"Right, from what I can tell, you're perfectly healthy," he said with a small smile. Tasha couldn't help but feel that perhaps Dr Harper wasn't a man who smiled genuinely very often. The smile was kind, but almost rusty in a way and it didn't quite reach his eyes. "I'm just going to have a word with one of the nurses and we'll leave you in peace."

With this he pulled the curtain back and was gone, leaving Tasha and Gwen alone in the tiny space. Gwen waited a moment, then sat down on the chair that Dr Harper had just vacated.

"How are you Tasha?" she asked, her soft voice calming after the loud cheerfulness of the nurses.

"Well nothing hurts," Tasha replied, sighing inwardly. She felt fine, she didn't know what else these medical types wanted her to say.

Gwen shook her head. "No, I mean," she paused. "How are you coping? Hospitals aren't the most enjoyable of places."

"Oh," Tasha tried to cover her surprise. "Well, it's a bit scary I guess."

Gwen nodded sympathetically. "Who called the ambulance for you?"

"A friend of mine, Monica. She was dropping round, wanted to see if I fancied going out for a drink," Tasha said laughing slightly.

"Lucky she found you," Gwen said, staring at Tasha in a way that made her feel as though the older woman was looking right through her skin and into her mind. Almost as if she knew something about her and needed to make sure that it was true, like how Monica studied her after she'd told her she liked her shoes when she didn't. "Has anything... Strange happened to you Tasha?"

Tasha blinked. "What like?" she asked, her thoughts instantly flitting to Shaal. Could she tell Gwen about her? Then it suddenly felt as though a wall of steel closed in her mind. She didn't want to tell this woman anything.

Gwen shrugged. "Just, anything odd. Made any new friends lately?"

"You think I've been seeing dealers or something? I don't do drugs," Tasha said, slightly sharper than she would have liked to.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Gwen reassured her, placing a hand on her arm. "We just want to get to the bottom of this Tasha so you can go home."

"How do my friends have anything to do with that?"

"Just in case one of them had done something to hurt you."

"No," Tasha said, hanging her head. "I've only got Monica here. All my friends were at home."

Gwen squeezed her arm gently. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Tasha's mind was reeling. She hadn't meant to say that, any of it. She tried to think of anything else to say or to apologise but she couldn't. Her mouth wouldn't open, she couldn't raise her head. It was like she had been frozen in place. Gwen didn't seem to notice, she was too busy being sympathetic and couldn't see the wide-eyed panic spreading across Tasha's face.

The moment of silence was broken when Dr Harper stuck his head back around the curtain.

"Gwen, we've got to go," he said tersely, then nodded at Tasha. "Look after yourself."

Gwen rolled her eyes and winked at Tasha. "I'll see you around. Hope you feel better."

Tasha nodded and waited until their footsteps had vanished down the hallway. Slowly she began to regain control of her body, her limbs relaxing and her thoughts becoming more coherent. She rolled over and pulled the blankets back up over her head. She didn't know what was wrong with her. She just wanted to go home.

Out in the hospital carpark, Gwen and Owen were climbing into the SUV. Gwen was thoughtful. As far as people went, Tasha Parker seemed to be one of the quieter ones. Shy and polite, a little bit awkward in an endearing manner. She hardly seemed like the kind of person to be mixed up in a Torchwood case. But there had been that slightly skittish, worried look in her eyes when Gwen had asked if anything was wrong. There was something that she hadn't told them and probably wasn't liable to do.

"Jack said that these creatures brainwash their victims," she said thoughtfully.

Owen glanced at her, then turned his eyes back to the road. "Yeah. Do you think it's been messing with her head?"

"I think we might need to take a look around her flat," Gwen said slowly. "There was something about her that just didn't seem quite right. I asked her if anything strange had happened to her and it was like, oh I don't know, a light just went off. She closed up completely."

Owen snorted. "That's why you don't ask anyone involved with aliens if anything weird happened. They tend to get the drift."

Gwen resisted the urge to smack him one. "So what did you find out from her then?"

"She's perfectly healthy," Owen said shortly. "There's nothing wrong with her that would have caused a collapse. She's not overtired, she's not dehydrated, she's not been abusing substances. I think Jack's Acherite or whatever might have been using her as a snack."

"Jack said that they can only feed on the willing," Gwen said, trying to remember exactly what he had told them about the creatures up in the boardroom yesterday. "The hopeful. So she must know what's going on."

"We'll get back and get Tosh to give us the address."

Gwen looked at him slyly. "Why don't you and Tosh go and look around?"

Owen raised an eyebrow. "And drag her away from her computer? I'm a cruel man Gwen, but even I have standards."

She laughed. "No, she can scan for any residual energy and it'll get her outside. She spends too long shut up with that computer."

"Yeah, alright," Owen said as he overtook an old lady driving at least ten miles slower than the speed limit.

**XxxXxxX**

Ianto usually had two kinds of morning. There were the mornings at the Hub where he'd wake up crammed into Jack's tiny bed and would have to haul himself out of the bunker to wash and dress before everyone else arrived. Jack would normally have gone out or would be sat up at his desk, reading reports and checking Rift activity. Then there were the mornings at home where he'd wake up sprawled across his bed and could walk around making his breakfast in just his pyjamas with no fear of bumping into Owen and could sing in the shower without being overheard.

However there was a third kind of morning that was slowly becoming more common. The mornings where he woke up in his own bed, wrapped in a warm embrace, the gentle sounds of someone else's breathing near his ear and the steady thump of a heartbeat under his fingertips. He'd look up into bright blue eyes and be met halfway with a kiss that generally tasted of morning breath, but it didn't really matter. They were still some of the best kisses he'd ever had.

"Morning."

It was always whispered, as if Jack was scared of disturbing the quiet around them. Sometimes the greeting would be followed by the rustling of sheets as he pressed himself closer or the wet smack of an exuberantly sloppy kiss but mostly it was just the soft greeting followed by a gentle caress. Ianto would just stare back, admiring the contrast of Jack's dark hair against the white of his pillowcases, the way the sheets clung to his body and he would wonder just how long Jack had been staring at him for.

He trailed his fingers over Jack's chest, enjoying the feeling of the smooth skin as he traced the lines of his ribs and relished the small shivers he got in response. Jack grabbed his hand and pressed it to his lips. They shifted closer together and Jack buried his face into the ruffled mess of Ianto's hair, breathing in his scent. They lay like this for was either minutes or hours, Ianto couldn't tell. He was warm, he felt safe and he kept slipping in and out of a light doze. Finally he woke up enough to realise that as comfortable as he may be, he was absolutely starving and was beginning to verge on being desperate to use the bathroom. He gave Jack one last kiss before disentangling himself and getting up.

He grimaced as the chill of the morning prickled over his flesh, making him break out in goosebumps. He pulled his pyjama bottoms on and shuffled off to the bathroom. When he came out, Jack wasn't in bed, but judging from the smell of bacon filling the house, he wasn't far away. He went downstairs and was treated to the sights of Jack Harkness frying bacon in just his underwear. He laughed and wished he had a camera, Gwen would have fits if she could have seen it.

"What?" Jack asked, perfectly dignified. "I said I'd cook breakfast."

"I'm not complaining," Ianto said, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Good," Jack said with a wink. "I could lose the boxers too you know."

Ianto rolled his eyes and shook his head but smiled. It was nice to have breakfast made for him for a change, even if Jack's cooking prowess didn't stretch much further than anything that could be fried or shoved in the microwave for a few minutes. He watched Jack clumsily crack eggs into the pan, cussing at the broken yolk and wave the spatula around as he chattered, dripping bacon grease all over the floor. Ianto didn't mind. Well, he did a little bit, but he could make Jack clean it up.

"Is this done?" Jack asked, prodding at the eggs with a frown.

Ianto peered over his shoulder. "Looks alright," he said and took two plates from an overhead cabinet.

The bacon was just a little too crispy and the eggs a bit runny, but it didn't matter. Ianto was just happy to sit down to a decent breakfast for once, rather than scavenging cold pizza out of the fridge back at the Hub or cramming some form of pastry down his throat while speeding out to a job in the SUV. He glanced at Jack who was currently trying to stuff his breakfast between two slices of bread and was struck yet again by just how much he cared for him, terrible table manners and all.

He quickly glanced away when Jack met his gaze, clearing his throat noisily. "So, this alien, what is it?"

"Acherite," Jack said and took a huge bite out of the dripping egg and bacon sandwich he'd made. Ianto waited patiently for him to finish chewing and carry on. "It's basically one massive brain with a skeleton. Beautiful creatures though, but they have a nasty habit of getting your hopes up then draining all of your energy and emotions."

"You've come across them before?" Ianto asked, neatly placing his knife and fork side by side on his plate.

Jack nodded absently, preoccupied with his breakfast monstrosity. "Slap bang in the middle of a civil war. Blundered into some rebels, got hit with some pretty powerful pheromones to keep me close by. Then they power their weapons off my energy and leave me face down in a burning building to die."

Ianto frowned. "Was this before the... Accident?"

"No. I was fresh out of the Agency."

"Then how did you survive?"

Jack raised his arm and pointed to his wrist strap. "I had just enough energy to activate this and teleport out of there. I went to New New York Hospital, spent a few days being fussed over by Catkind nuns and then had to book outta there fast before anyone from the Agency came after me."

Ianto stretched and leaned back in his chair. "So why is one here?"

Jack shrugged. "Accident I think. It must have survived the crash and been drawn to the city to feed. After that... Well, I don't know why it's tried getting into the Hub. We'll figure it out, we usually do."

"Do we have any leads?"

"Your little friend Natasha Parker."

Ianto frowned. "Who?"

"Delivery girl."

"Oh right. Tasha," Ianto paused. "What's she got to do with it?"

Jack shrugged. "She turned up just a few hours before you went down and she was recently hospitalised for collapse from no known causes. It reeks of Acherite."

Ianto shivered. How long had Tasha been involved with the alien? She always seemed so... Ordinary really. He didn't mean it unkindly, she just wasn't the kind of person you associated with alien invaders. But then, what did he know about her really? She was quiet, a bit nervous really, had a bit of a chat and then went. Not like Becky or Sam, they were noisy and talked far too much. It was a bit weird to think of her as helping an alien overdose him. He shifted uncomfortably and began to clear the table to take his mind off it.

Jack got up to help and took the dirty plates off Ianto and stacked them in the dishwasher. Then he gently took Ianto by his wrist and pulled him closer to kiss him gently.

"I'm gonna have to go soon, they'll be needing me back at the Hub."

Ianto nodded and tried not to pout like a sulky toddler. As much as he wanted to keep Jack here all to himself, he knew that Jack had to go. It didn't mean that he had to like it however.

Jack nuzzled at his neck. "Come on, let's go take a shower."

"A shower?"

"A _shower_."

"Ah. Lead on."


	11. Chapter 11

She had seen them leaving the hospital. The woman and the man, so confident, so at ease with themselves. She knew them on sight, she had watched them on her stake-outs entering the underground complex she had detected during her first night in Cardiff. They belonged to Harkness, and that meant that he knew that something was going on. Whether he knew it was her... She didn't know.

Torchwood... A strange name. What little information she had been able to access told her that they were founded by a long dead monarch to protect the Empire. This had angered her. How dare he aid rebellion one month and be a staunch protector of imperialism the next? Was he a mercenary then? She didn't care. It wouldn't matter what he was in the end, he would still die. He would die soon in fact. She finally had enough energy to put the second part of her plan into motion. Every one of her systems was back online and more or less fully functioning.

She gazed down at the sleeping girl she cradled in her arms. Tasha had been so useful. She had accepted the mental conditioning so easily. Because it was what she wanted. Deep down, Tasha had wanted direction and purpose. She had floundered around in uncertainties all her life, always accepting second best in hope that it would lead her to coming in first. She was always hoping. It was admirable in some ways, to try and find a light in the increasing darkness and noise that surrounded her. In other ways, it was a bit pathetic. But really, it was of no consequence. Her hope made her energy so delectable and so much more potent.

It had been easy to get her out of the hospital, an open window on the ward was all she had needed and Tasha had left it wide open, just as she had been told. All that had been left to do was to extend the radius of her cloaking circuits, pick her up and leave. Nobody had seen, Tasha had insisted that the curtains around her bed remained closed, of course. It had all worked perfectly.

Now she was carrying the human down a street lined with spindly trees and tiny terraced houses. Cars were packed on either side of the road and pedestrians huddled into their coats and scarves as the wind nipped at any skin that was left exposed. The sky was a boiling mass of gray clouds and she could almost taste the electricity as it crackled in the air. Only a few hours ago Harkness had been on this very street, dashing out of a house she had committed to memory.

She stopped outside the house and scanned it. One living organism, human. She checked around for any lingering pedestrian. There were none. She shifted Tasha, freeing up one arm to open the gate. Then she placed the human on the doorstep.

"_Action three," _she told the girl firmly.

Tasha's eyes flew open. They were blank, completely glazed over. Then she got to her feet stiffly, as though she was moving under great pressure. She stood still for a moment, then stepped forwards and rang the doorbell.

There was no immediate response, but then came the sound of footsteps approaching the door and the click of the latch. Then Ianto Jones appeared in the doorway.

"Tasha?"

**XxxXxxX**

"Why is it always Splott?" Owen grumbled, slamming the door of the SUV shut. "It's always aliens in Splott. Why not somewhere warm? The tropics perhaps? Hell, I'd even go for Penarth, just for a change."

Tosh tried not to snap. He'd done this the entire way there, one long rant about why he didn't want to go to Splott, how Gwen or Jack could have gone instead and could she actually say something rather than just nod please? She also tried not to let his comments sting.

"Oh I don't know," she said, attempting cheerfulness. "Perhaps Splott is an exotic destination by alien standards."

"And I thought London was bad..." Owen muttered. "Right, come on then."

The house they approached was clearly meant to be a charming family home, maybe it had been at some point. But it wasn't now. Three stories, three flats crammed into one structure. The rusty gate led to a scrubby patch of discoloured grass, choked with weeds and littered with fragments of the ancient roof tiles that had fallen in the bad weather. The grimy plaster over the brickwork was crumbling away and there were stains under the windows from the damp that made the building look like it was weeping.

It was miserable. Tosh thought of her warm, modern apartment and felt guilty for a moment, living in her posh flat while this poor girl was living... Here.

"Fucking dump," Owen said, wrinkling his nose, clearly not sharing her feelings. As per usual then.

They picked their way to the front door. It was unlocked and opened onto a dingy hallway, the door to the first floor flat directly opposite them. The floor was littered with water-damaged flyers and cigarette butts. It smelt like damp wool and old booze.

The apartment they were going to investigate was on the second floor. Owen placed a familiar piece of tech onto the lock and thirty seconds later, it popped open. He grinned and slipped it back into his pocket, motioning for Tosh to follow him inside. Tosh braced herself, expecting to find a horrific mess or perhaps a hive of aliens lurking in the bathroom.

Instead they were confronted with a perfectly ordinary flat. It was a little cluttered, very cramped but it was normal. The front door opened directly onto the kitchen. A chipped mug sat in the sink with dregs of tea congealing at the the bottom, an ancient TV set and battered sofa in the living room. The bedroom closet was a mess of clothes and art supplies, the shelves full of jars being used to hold paintbrushes all meticulously cleaned and tubes of paint arranged neatly by colour and shade.

"An artist then," Tosh said, spotting a huge stack of sketchbooks in the corner of the room. She picked up the one at the top and flicked through it. It was mostly full of sketches of the same view from the living room window but each time it was very different. The shadows moved, the figures and cars came and went. Some of them were bright and cheerful, the others were dull and moody. Tosh didn't really know too much about this sort of thing, but she figured that this indicated some real talent.

Fifteen minutes later they had found nothing.

"This was a waste of time," Owen said, crossly as he sat on the floor and rummaged through a wastepaper basket.

"There must be something," Tosh said, failing to keep the despondency out of her voice.

Owen growled and shoved the bin back into the corner and stood up. "Come on Tosh, I think it's safe to say-"

He was cut off by the front door opening.

They both froze. Tosh's mind was reeling, Tasha wasn't due to be released from the hospital yet, Owen had made sure that they were doing enough tests to keep her there for at least another two days while they tried to ascertain whether she had anything to do with whatever the hell was going on or not. She glanced around the room, there was nowhere to hide. Owen signalled for her to get away as he crept towards the kitchen door, one hand reaching into his jacket for his gun. She slowly moved back towards the bedroom and then slipped into the bathroom. It was tiny and pitch black, there were no windows and she didn't dare switch on the light.

Two minutes later by her count Owen opened the door and stopped, reaching out into the dark for her. His hand closed around her arm and he relaxed slightly, moving in closer.

"I can't see anybody out there," he murmured. Tosh could feel his breath on the side of her face and the hand on her arm was shaking.

"Then why are you whispering."

"Because things are moving around by themselves."

Tosh felt a shiver race down her spine, followed by a prickle of sweat. "What?" she hissed.

Owen was about to reply when they both heard the rustle of something moving in the bedroom outside. Owen's grip on her arm tightened and she instinctively stepped forwards, huddling closer in the dark. There was a sickening silence. Was it gone? Had it heard them? Tosh began to slowly reach for her gun. Her fingers brushed the cold metal and she pulled it out from the holster she wore under her jacket. Instantly she felt better with it's comforting weight in her hand. Then she realised how close she was standing to Owen and another shiver ran through her.

He was so warm. He smelt good too, like expensive aftershave mixed with the faint, sharp tang of antiseptic lingering around him from all the time he spent down in the autopsy room. She blushed, of all the times to notice his scent. It was hardly professional.

She didn't know exactly how long they stood like that, frozen in the corner of the bathroom but the silence just stretched on and on, finally broken by the thud of the front door shutting. Tosh gasped and slumped down onto the toilet seat. She felt like she had been a spring, being wound tighter and tighter until she snapped. Owen fumbled for the door handle and slowly opened it.

They both winced as the light assaulted their eyes and they moved around the rooms like they were trying to navigate a minefield. There were no signs at first that anything had been moved but then Tosh noticed the neat stack of sketchbooks had been rifled through and put back haphazardly, and a few scraps of paper littered the floor around them.

"Owen, over here," she said, bending down beside the pile.

"What?"

"Whatever it was took something out of one of these books," Tosh said, picking the first one up and flipping through it. Sure enough, the first few pages had been torn out messily, fragments of paper still sticking out from the binding.

Owen leaned over her shoulder. "What's the odds it missed something?"

Tosh shrugged. "I don't know. If I take this back to the Hub I could scan the pages that were underneath and see if I can pick up any imprints in the paper and rebuild what was on the missing pages," she said thoughtfully.

Owen grabbed an armful of the books. "There could be something in these too," he said in reply to Tosh's questioning look.

"You're right," she said, closing the book and took the remaining sketchbooks from the floor. "Let's get back then."

**XxxXxxX**

Gwen yawned and spun around in her chair. The Hub was quiet, Owen and Tosh were out investigating Tasha's flat and Jack was somewhere down in the archives looking for any more information on the Acherite race. This left her staring at several screens that weren't displaying anything unusual at all. She got up to get herself a can of Coke from the fridge and sat back down, the screens just as blank as before.

Last night had been nice though, she thought with a smile. Rhys had been too tired to cook so they'd ordered Chinese and climbed into bed to eat it. They'd chatted, she'd told him about the case they were working on and he'd had a whinge about his secretary who was getting on his nerves again. It had been like those days when she'd just joined the police and there hadn't been aliens or saving the world. It had just been Gwen and Rhys, two normal people with normal jobs. As much as she would like to say that sometimes she wished it had all stayed the same, she knew she didn't.

"You know," a voice said from behind her, making her jump. "I think there's such a thing as being too organised."

Jack had reappeared from the archives empty-handed. "I can't find anything," he said grumpily. "It's just so... Tidy. I'm scared to move anything."

Gwen giggled. "Why don't you give Ianto a call, he probably knows off the top of his head."

"I might just have to," Jack agreed, pulling his phone out of his pocket. He was sent straight to voice mail. "Ianto, I didn't want to bother you but I can't get the hang of your archives, do we have anything on the Acherites? Get back to me when you can and I'll see you later."

He snapped the phone shut. "He must be asleep."

Gwen nodded, then the computer behind her gave an alert and a window sprang up onto the monitor. She spun around, her fingers whirring across the keys as she went through the report. Jack stood still, waiting for her to finish.

"My God..." she muttered, turning to face him. "Tasha Parker just vanished from the hospital."

At this moment the cog door rolled back and Owen and Tosh came clattering in, both laden down with armfuls of what seemed to be sketchbooks.

"What's with all these?" Jack asked, momentarily distracted from Gwen's disturbing news as he watched them dump the books onto a desk.

"Evidence," Tosh said, shaking her cramped arms. Those books had been heavy.

"While were were there, something came in," Owen said, passing Tosh a particularly tattered sketchbook, torn paper stuck out of the sides at all angles.

"What did it look like?" Jack asked urgently.

Owen shook his head. "It was invisible. Stuff just started moving around by itself."

Tosh was now scanning one of the books into her computer. "It went after this book, tore some pages out. I think I can..." she trailed off, typing furiously.

"Well, just as you came in we got a report," Gwen said, standing next to Jack. "Tasha just vanished."

Owen looked up. "You what?"

"She's gone."

"I've got it!" Tosh cried.

On her screen was a messy tangle of scribbled black lines. It didn't look like it was something to be so enthusiastic to Gwen but with a few tapped out commands on the keyboard and some clicks of the mouse, Tosh separated the lines into four definitive sketches. Each one was of a tall, willowy figure with long arms and legs and a delicate, beautiful head. The bones and skull were clearly visible through it's skin and Gwen could see rough rectangular shapes scattered around it's body.

"What is that?" She asked.

"An Acherite," Jack said heavily. "Tasha's involved alright. But where is she?"

"I'll check the CCTV footage around the hospital," Tosh said.

Jack nodded. "You do that, Gwen, Owen, I want you two to go back to the hospital and have a look around. I'm going to go fetch Ianto, I need that information now."

Confident that they would have Tasha brought in by the time he got back, Jack took the SUV and drove to Ianto's place in a hurry. He felt bad dragging him back in on his day off, but there really wasn't any other option. He seemed well enough this morning he thought with a smirk, thinking back to the shower they'd had this morning, steamy in more ways that one. Besides, it had been well over twenty-four hours since the overdose, he'd be right as rain.

He rang the doorbell and knocked impatiently as a warning before opening the door with his key. Ianto was sitting on the sofa in the lounge, absorbed in a book. He looked up expressionlessly when Jack bounded in.

"I'm afraid I have to drag you back into work Mr Jones," he announced. "I can't find anything in the archives without the expertise of a certain sexy archivist."

Ianto nodded stiffly. "Alright."

Jack frowned. "Look, I'm sorry Ianto, I'll make it up to you. Dinner later? My treat."

There was no change in Ianto's expression. Jack placed his hands on his shoulders. "I mean it, I'm sorry," he said softly, bending down to kiss Ianto.

He was surprised when Ianto jerked away, jumping up from the sofa and backing away towards the kitchen. Even when Ianto was angry with him, he never reacted like this. Then comprehension dawned on him as he stared into Ianto's blank eyes.

"Oh I see," he said with a laugh.

Then he punched Ianto Jones square in the face.


	12. Chapter 12

_Terribly sorry for the delay, exams have kicked in full swing and I got a bit stuck with this chapter. Anyways, read, enjoy, leave us a comment or something if you so wish. Later days_

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><p>Jack had found over the years that usually when someone is punched in the face there is a good deal of noise. There's the sickening but often rather satisfying crunch of nasal cartilage crumpling below his fist along with the usual dull thud of impact and the screams, yells or wails of pain or growls or roars of rage. This time however, there was none of that, Ianto just dropped to the floor, his facial features still a perfect, expressionless mask.<p>

Pulling the sleeve of his coat back, Jack keyed a command into his wrist-strap and waited a moment. The crumpled form of Ianto on the floor flickered, like a TV image with interference then vanished, revealing a very familiar figure. Long, graceful limbs and greyish, translucent skin. The alien had clearly not been expecting him to hit it.

"Rule one of disguises," Jack said conversationally as he hauled it upright. "Choose a disguise you can wear convincingly, humans have faces that they use remember? Rule two, never disguise yourself as a lover, it just never works."

He waited for a reply that didn't come.

"Oh. You're unconscious... I suppose being all brains has it's downsides huh?"

Then a sickening clarity settled on him, draining away the smug triumph and adrenaline coursing through him. If the alien was here... Where the hell was Ianto? He stared at the strange, beautiful creature he held. It hadn't killed him had it? He looked around the room. No signs of struggle, no ominous shape slumped in any of the corners... He awkwardly dragged the Acherite around with him like a child with an oversized teddy bear as he checked each room, each distressingly lacking Ianto.

He shrugged his coat off and slung it over the alien and stowed it in the back of the SUV, his expression grim. Then he sent the SUV hurtling forwards with a squeal of rubber on tarmac as he raced back to the Hub, the first spatters of rain hitting the windows. He didn't know how long he had before the alien came to and he didn't want to be stuck in an enclosed space when it did. Thankfully the creature didn't stir once the entire way.

"What the fuck is that?" Owen asked loudly when the door rolled back and Jack staggered in with the Acherite still concealed under his coat.

"It's our alien," Jack said shortly, grunting as he hauled it up the stairs. "Help me get it to a cell."

With Owen's help the Acherite was soon lying sprawled across the floor of one of the cells. Jack pressed a finger to his earpiece, not taking his eyes off the creature.

"Tosh, I want you to disable the circuits, think you can do it?"

"Sure, it won't take a moment to block the signals... And... Done."

"Thanks Tosh."

"Not a problem."

He ended the communication and moved closer to the glass, leaning one arm on it and gazing thoughtfully inside. On closer inspection, the Acherite was female, it didn't have the distinctive horns protruding from its skull that the males of its species possessed. Her flesh was an interesting blue-grey. The rebels he had found himself with had all been a pale shade of green, their bone structure much bulkier and less delicate. This one was a member of the Imperial Elite then. He'd only seen them from a distance or after they were dead.

But what was she doing here?

"Kind of pretty isn't it?" Owen said softly from beside him. Jack had forgotten he was there.

"She," Jack said, stepping away from the glass. "And don't be fooled, they're a cold-hearted bunch."

"You said," Owen sniffed. "Where's the Teaboy then?"

"Gone."

Owen stared at him, the colour draining from his face. "What?"

"He isn't dead," Jack said hurriedly. "He's just gone, I found her in his house pretending to be him. One of those chameleon circuits Tosh was raving about."

"Shit..."

Jack nodded. Shit indeed. He was mildly surprised that he wasn't in there prodding her with a pointy stick until she woke up and he could shout at her. He could feel the scared and the panic and the anger boiling away inside him but a cold rage was keeping them all locked up to be unleashed later when he needed them. How dare she lay a finger on Ianto? How dare she have the gall to think she could pretend to be him and that he wouldn't notice?

"Call the others," Jack said tersely. "We've got to find Ianto."

"And Tasha," Owen added.

"Yeah, her too."

Jack was out the door and halfway up the stairs before Owen could say anything more. So the doctor settled for rolling his eyes and dashing after him, giving the figure on the floor of the cell a wary backward glance.

"Okay girls, Ianto has gone missing. Tosh, I want CCTV footage of Ianto's place, Gwen check and see if there's been any sightings of Tasha logged by the police."

Owen sat down and watched as the girls sprang into action, eyes glued to the monitors. Jack stood behind them, arms crossed and watched, waiting for something, anything to show up that would point them in the right direction.

"Nothing so far," Gwen called back.

Tosh also reported a negative. The cameras positioned on the street had all shorted out earlier on that day and were still offline, no doubt due to their friend down in the cells. Jack pressed his lips together and nodded stiffly. Then he turned on his heel and strode back down to the cells.

He leaned against the wall opposite the Acherite's cell and waited. For ages it seemed like she wouldn't wake, that perhaps his punch had somehow completely scrambled her, perhaps she was even in a coma. But just as he was about to give up and go back upstairs, she stirred.

She got up slowly, looking around the tiny cell, running her long fingers over the walls. She froze when she spotted him, crouching back against the wall.

Jack gave a thin smile. "Hi."

"_Harkness," _she spat.

Jack grimaced. "Ugh. I'd forgotten you speak telepathically. You know, I never liked communicating like that. It's too hard to sort out what you're thinking and what you're saying."

The alien hissed, but said nothing else.

"So, what brings you to this side of town?" Jack asked conversationally, pushing off the wall and moving closer. "Have you made any friends? Tasha's a nice girl, very sweet, and Ianto, well, he's certainly something isn't he?"

"_Get to your point."_

Jack laughed softly, then his face hardened and he bared his teeth in a snarl. "Where are they?"

To his surprise, the Acherite just laughed, the sound like tinkling crystal in his head. She pulled herself up to her full height and drifted slowly towards him, reaching out and touching the glass.

"_They're... Safe. But I don't really want to talk about them, Harkness," _she said.

"Tell me where they are, or I get my friend upstairs to short out all those pretty little circuits. Ever smelt fried brains before? It isn't appetising."

She tilted her head to one side. _"Empty threats. Anyway, it's been a long time. I thought we could catch up first."_

Jack frowned. "I have no idea who you are. Quit messing me around and tell me where they are."

"_You don't? You mean, you really didn't know any of us?" _The alien sounded surprised. _"Leeal didn't tell you at all then."_

"Tell me what?"

"_Who you murdered."_

Jack stepped back, his heart pounding in his chest. He tried desperately to recall what had happened all those years ago back on Acheron but it had been so long ago and he'd been controlled, hardly aware of who he was, let alone what he was doing. One moment he'd been in the forest, the next he was lying on the floor of the palace with only moments to live. What had happened in the time between?

"_I am Shaal, true heir to the imperial throne of Acheron. You killed my father Jack Harkness. You killed my mother. You let bloodthirsty rebels take my homeland and destroy it. The Imperial Family of Acheron is all but gone," _Shaal said, coolly, as if she were discussing the weather with him. _"Months later I find you protecting an empire. You're nothing more than a filthy mercenary."_

"Months?" Jack asked, then realised. "Ah. Yeah, relative time... Right."

"_I came here to make you pay for all you took from me."_

"Good luck doing that from in there," Jack said angrily, beginning to pull himself back together.

Then to his surprise, all the circuits embedded in Shaal's body suddenly began to blink again, all apparently back on line. Jack quickly tapped his earpiece and tried to get through to Tosh, but all he got was static. Shaal had cut the communications. The next thing he saw was the alien casually open the door step out of her cell. He backed away slowly and tried the earpiece again. Still nothing.

"_Hope is a powerful emotion," _she said. _"Little Tasha, your lover, I believe you called him, both so hopeful. He's dying Harkness. The energy is being sapped out of his body and he doesn't even realise."_

"What have you done?" Jack shouted, reaching for his pistol, but he was too late. Shaal reached out and touched him gently on his shoulder.

Then the world gave a sickening lurch and he was plunging into darkness.

Upstairs the alarms had begun to sound. Owen and Gwen were charging, guns pulled down to the cells. They had seen the alien walk right out of the cell, shortly afterwards the communications network had gone down, along with the computers and several random pieces of alien tech. Tosh hadn't been able to get a picture of what was going on and had stayed behind to try and get the computers working again.

They hurled the door open and were confronted with the sight of their alien visitor gently laying Jack down on the floor. It jumped and snapped its head up when they crashed in, but made no move to flee.

"_No need to worry," _the alien said sweetly. _"He isn't dead, not yet."_

"What did you do to him?" Gwen asked, panic seeping into her voice. Even knowing that Jack couldn't die, it was still frightening to see him lying prone on the floor.

"_I've only put him to sleep. He'll need his rest if he wants to find the girl and his poor lover before it's too late."_

Before either Gwen or Owen had time to react, the alien had vanished.

Owen gritted his teeth and turned to Gwen. "All this alien junk we pick up and use, but we still can't make our base teleport proof."

"Shut up Owen," Gwen said shortly. "Let's get Jack upstairs, then we'll... I don't know, we'll try and figure it all out."

**XxxXxxX**

Ianto came back to consciousness slowly. He stared at the inside of his eyelids and immediately wished he hadn't woken up. He wasn't a heavy drinker by nature. He knew his limits and to avoid spirits at all costs, so he wasn't particularly accustomed to hangovers. So the pounding in his head and sickly swell of nausea in his belly had him floored for a moment. He shifted uncomfortably, it was cold and the rough surface at his back was scraping him through his shirt.

He groaned. He didn't remember drinking anything... God, he hadn't been overdosed again had he?

His eyes few open and he was met with a bleak, foggy landscape. He could only see a few feet in front of him, the dampness of the mist beading on his clothes and in his hair. He tried to stand up but was instantly jerked back. He was tied firmly to whatever it was behind him. Craning around he was confronted with the words '_This obelisk marks the spot where the body of Tommy Jones aged 5 was found...'_

Ianto stared blankly at it. He was on Pen y Fan, tied to Tommy Jones' Obelisk.

"Well," he said to nobody in particular. "This is just brilliant."


	13. Chapter 13

_It's been a while since the last update, exams, illness etc. So here is chapter 13, enjoy m'dears~_

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><p>"You're awake!" a female voice cried.<p>

From around the other side of the obelisk, the pale, tired figure of Tasha appeared. She was still wearing the hospital pyjamas she had been dressed in when she had appeared on his doorstep. Ianto frowned. What had happened after that? He couldn't remember, everything just went black and the next thing he knew... Well, he was here.

"Tasha? What the hell is going on?" he asked as she sat down next to him, a broad smile plastered over her face.

"We're waiting," she told him cheerily, reaching over and brushing some dried mud off Ianto's jeans.

Ianto fought the urge to jerk away from her. "What for?"

"I don't know," she said, leaning back against the memorial. "Shaal said we should spend some time together."

"And who is Shaal?"

Her smile widened. "My friend. She wants to help me."

"Shaal wouldn't happen to be an alien by any chance, would she Tasha?" Ianto asked cautiously. He was rather hoping she'd say yes. Because otherwise this was just going to get very, very creepy.

"Of course she is. She crashed near here. It's okay though, because it was all part of her plan."

Behind the smile, Tasha's eyes were utterly blank. Like she was asleep with her eyes open. Right, bog-standard mind control then, Ianto judged. If he was lucky, he might be able to loosen the straps around his wrists and get the hell out of there. He tested the bonds, plastic straps, strong, tight and very, very painful. He wasn't going to be pulling a Houdini any time soon. Which was a shame really, he'd always liked the looks on captor's faces when he sprang free of his bindings. You can't have them all, he told himself consolingly and looked around for anything that might help him escape.

There wasn't anything. There was just him, Tasha and the obelisk of poor little Tommy Jones.

Okay then. There was nothing he could do. He couldn't move from this spot, there was nobody around to help him aside from a brainwashed delivery girl and his nose itched but he couldn't scratch it.

He slumped back and closed his eyes. He just had to wait, maybe Tasha would break through the mind control, or the team might show up for a daring rescue at any moment.

Any time now...

Now.

"Hey Tasha?"

"Yes?"

"I spy with my little eye..."

**XxxXxxX**

"How the bloody hell are we supposed to find him?

"I don't know!"

"Of course you don't, fat lot of good you are."

Gwen pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. Jack had woken up from the alien's attack just moments ago and already he and Owen were having a go at each other. She looked up and rolled her eyes at Tosh who grimaced back over the top of her PDA. Part of her wanted to walk out of the Hub and leave them to it, Rhys had phoned earlier and mentioned getting a curry or just heating up one of those vegetable quiches he'd picked up from the supermarket. Quiche was sounding like a much better alternative than watching two grown men argue like kids.

"Alright!" Jack roared, effectively silencing whatever sarcasm had been about to trickle out of Owen's mouth and gaining the attention of the girls.

They all looked at him with the sheepish air of schoolchildren who had just pushed their teacher over the edge. He pressed his lips together in a thin smile and slowly sat down in his chair.

"Alright," he repeated, this time very calmly. "Here's what we're going to do." His tone was soothing and Gwen felt herself relaxing, despite the tension boiling in the room around her.

"Tosh."

"Yes?"

"The circuits give off a signal, but the signal is unique to each Acherite as they are linked in with their brain activity. Did the computer register the signal before we blocked her circuits?" Jack asked, using that same calm tone rather than his usual bark when it came to giving orders.

Tosh was bent over the PDA, stylus tapping the screen rapidly. She still hadn't managed to get her computer back online.

They waited. Finally she raised her head.

"I've got it, the bioscan wasn't complete but it did pick up any signals that the alien was emitting."

Jack gave her a brilliant smile. "Excellent, we can track Shaal's movements from here."

"Shaal?" Owen asked.

"It's her name. Apparently we go back," Jack said with forced levity. "One of the many nights I don't remember."

"So we're under attack from an ex of yours, again?" Owen's sarcasm was back online, even if the computers weren't.

Jack looked irritated for a moment. "Nothing like that," he said, pausing for a moment. He wasn't sure if he should tell them about the reason Shaal was here. Across the table, Gwen was giving him a tired look. The look that promised a 'don't shut us out Jack' speech later, one he really didn't want to hear again. He sighed. "According to her, I killed her family."

"Well, that's probably why she's so pissed then," Owen said, sliding down in his seat and staring moodily at the pen he was twirling between his fingers.

Gwen frowned. "You mean you don't remember doing it?"

Jack shrugged. This was why he didn't tell people everything. Answer one question and then there's another and another. Then they'd get to the tricky bits and rather than answers, he had to give explanations.

He didn't like giving explanations. So he changed the subject.

"Tosh, have you got a hold on the signal?"

Tosh shook her head. "Not yet, just give me a moment."

Gwen was looking confused. "But the ship she came on, it crashed, is she just here by chance?"

"Yeah, I was just in the neighbourhood so I thought I'd pop by and finally take my revenge," Owen muttered.

That was a very good point Jack thought. He hadn't even noticed that. "It could have been a prison ship, taking her away and they just happened to pass over Earth."

"Why would she be on a prison ship?" Gwen asked.

More questions. Jack set his teeth. He missed Ianto. Ianto didn't ask questions, unless he really had to. He respected that there were some things that Jack just didn't want to talk about. He didn't like it, Jack knew, but he didn't go on about it. Plus, Jack could really use a coffee right now. His temper was fraying and he could feel the panic and anger that he'd so far kept safely smothered under cool logic and calm was straining to break free.

"Ooh!" Tosh said excitedly. She held up the PDA with a sweet little smile. "Got the signal."

Jack thanked whatever Gods may be about for Toshiko Sato. "Where is she then?"

"Pen y Fan," Tosh said, tucking the PDA into her pocket. "Near the crash site."

Gwen frowned. "What's she doing there?"

Jack was already halfway out the door. "Waiting for us."

The drive over to the mountain was terrifying. Not because they were being harassed by an alien that could teleport, disguise itself, poison them and who knew what else, but because of Jack's driving. He broke Owen's record of traffic laws broken at least twice over, causing Tosh to send a message to the police to apologise in advance from the back seat. Gwen sat in the passenger seat and held on for dear life, hands clamped around her seatbelt. Jack's hands were gripping the wheel tightly, knuckles white.

Oh dear, she thought absently. Captain Jack was very, very angry.

**XxxXxxX**

Shaal hovered behind the obelisk. She had just returned from the crash site. Only it hadn't been a crash site, there was no trace of the mangled metal and remains of her captors. Krael hadn't been there either. She fought down a slight twinge of guilt and sorrow. It had been necessary. She had tried to keep him safe, she told herself. She hadn't known that the defence system didn't cover two, she'd organised it all in such a hurry. Once she had found that Earth was on-route, everything had become such a rush.

Memories were beginning to seep through the cold, calculating shield she had placed around her mind. Their wedding, the celebrations, that first contact, their first child... Leeal had taken her baby, probably to raise it as a leader of the new republic and once she no longer could feel the tiny mind nestled next to hers, she had lost it all. The burning desire to kill the source of Leeal's power and avenge her parents had taken over. She didn't have much time, she knew Leeal would be back to reclaim Harkness to power her new republic, she just didn't know when. If she could kill him before that...

She peered over the top of the obelisk. Tasha and the male, Ianto were both sat slumped at the base of the memorial. They had played some inane game for a while, but had stopped as Tasha had begun to fall asleep. Ianto, to his credit was surprisingly alert, probably due to the fact that he hadn't been previously drained. Occasionally he twisted and squirmed, trying to loosen the straps around his wrists. Every now and then he would nudge Tasha awake and tell her gently to try and stay conscious, that help was probably on the way. He talked awkwardly to her to try and stop her from sleeping, clearly unused to speaking so much. His main topic was cats. He was apparently planning on getting one but was unsure about the breed he liked the most or what to name it and whether it was a good idea or not.

She couldn't help but feel slightly bad about what she was doing to them but squashed the feeling. They, like Krael were necessary sacrifices.

Once she had drained them, she could activate her weaponry and go after Harkness properly. She was a little embarrassed about being caught earlier. She had hoped that Harkness would have taken her into the base while she was disguised, she could have overdosed them all and left before they even realised what had happened. Unfortunately she had picked on his lover and she hadn't counted on the simple fact that facial expressions and body language were a source of communication on this planet. Heathens, she thought primly.

**XxxXxxX**

"And that's why I really don't like rum," Ianto finished lamely. He wasn't sure how long he could keep this up. Tasha getting paler and paler and she was falling asleep much more frequently. He was worried that if he didn't keep her awake, she'd just slip away. She had to keep fighting. He wasn't a talker by nature and he was beginning to almost envy the way Gwen could natter on about anything at any time. He'd talked about cats, that annoying bloke on the telly, cats again and spirits, namely the ones from the bottom of a bottle.

Now what could he talk about?

"So are you seeing anyone?" He asked, settling on a standard topic of conversation, mainly the one his mum asked him on the phone every time she rang.

Tasha blinked sleepily. "No..."

"Got anyone you're interested in?"

She smiled a little. "Yeah. He's great but he doesn't..." she yawned and settled back against the obelisk. "He doesn't really notice me."

Ianto smiled. He remembered that feeling all too well, back at Torchwood One. Lisa had been so gorgeous, but so remote and ridiculously higher up than he had been in the office hierarchy. All the blokes on their floor had mooned over her, following at her heels like puppies. He had admired her from a distance, over the top of his work station until one day he had met her eyes across the room, completely by accident. A few weeks later they were officially a couple. He sighed heavily, the memories of those happier times seeming ridiculously far away now.

"What about you?" Tasha asked, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"Me? Oh... Well, I suppose."

"You suppose?"

"It's... A bit odd really," he said, struggling for words. "I don't really know how to put it."

Tasha was looking at him strangely.

"Well, he's... Amazing really," Ianto said at last. "The dashing hero, saving the day, being swooned over and all that. Makes me wonder... Well, why he'd bother with me I suppose. Sometimes I think I'm just a shag, but then he comes over and has dinner, spends the night, goes grocery shopping with me and all that other domestic rubbish and... I just don't know."

He flushed and examined a patch of grass closely so he didn't have to look at Tasha.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"It's fine," she said, an odd, strained note in her voice.

It was around then that Ianto became aware that he was also feeling suddenly exhausted. Panic began to well in his chest. Whatever the alien was doing to Tasha, it was doing to him. It had to be nearby but all he could see was the dense fog shrouding them. He bit down hard on his tongue, the pain jolting his nerves and shocking him out of the drowsiness.

Half an hour later he was slumped at the bottom of the obelisk, reading and re-reading the inscription over and over. If he died here too would it just become the Jones Obelisk or would Tommy still get the whole thing to himself? Tasha was unconscious, he couldn't get her to wake. She was still breathing but her breaths were shallow and raspy. His wrists were dripping blood where he'd wrenched them against the bindings, partly as an attempt to escape, partly to shock himself awake. It wasn't really working any more.

As he lay there a large drop of rain landed on his face, followed by a sudden torrential downpour. Welsh weather, he thought dully. At least it might refresh him a little.

"Great, just great," he heard a familiar voice say on the edge of his hearing. "Not only are we lost, again, but it's bloody pissing it down. We haul all our alien catching gear up here, that by the way isn't working, but don't bring a damn umbrella?"

There was only one person that could be Ianto thought with a smile and nudged Tasha.

"The cavalry has arrived."


End file.
